妙法蓮華經玄義 釋名·行妙

Why might someone cultivate a hundred practices and still not have advanced a single step? Because however many practices one performs, without wisdom to show the way one may merely be busy in place. Eyes can see the road, but only feet can arrive; with eyes alone and no walking, what one sees does not become one’s life, while with feet alone and no seeing, the faster one walks, the farther one may stray from the road.

The subtlety of practice therefore does not first ask how much you have done. It first asks what wisdom guides each practice. One dharma can encompass all practices, and ten or a hundred dharmas can also encompass all practices. The key is not to lengthen the list without end, but to let discipline, concentration, wisdom, and compassion all advance toward the same reality. Wisdom is like a sharp needle and practice like a long thread: however long the thread, it still needs the needle to carry it through the cloth.

Discipline is like guarding a flotation bladder while crossing the sea, unwilling to yield even a strand of it. Concentration is like a cool pool amid burning affliction, bringing the agitated mind to rest. Wisdom is like discovering that the jewel has always been within one’s body and no longer staring only at the wound in grief. The three cannot replace one another, nor can they be sealed apart. True wondrous practice means that wisdom is not left behind when one keeps discipline, sentient beings are not forgotten when one enters concentration, and one remains willing to enter concrete cause and effect when one contemplates emptiness.

Compassion also keeps cultivation from facing upward alone. When an infant cries, its parents may first quiet it with a yellow willow leaf. The leaf is not real gold, yet it can become a slight condition for entering the path. When sentient beings are ill, a bodhisattva can also stoop down and share their illness, entering circumstances in which they can meet. Skillful means is not the endpoint, but if one refuses to reach out because it is not ultimate, reality becomes only a distant name.

Thus sequence and completeness are not enemies. Ordinary beings gravely afflicted by views and thought still need the step-by-step support of discipline, concentration, and wisdom, but no step need be sealed into an isolated stage. What the beginner contemplates and what is revealed at the ultimate are not two truths; they differ only in clarity and obscurity, depth and shallowness. When the destination is known, sequence does not postpone the ultimate; when one is willing to take every step, completeness does not collapse into a beautiful phrase.

The heart of the subtlety of practice is to let the Dharma one understands grow feet. Today, guard one thought with vigilance, face one object without grasping, and refuse to abandon compassion for one sentient being. So long as right wisdom leads, each small step can open into all practices. The wondrous does not lie in an astonishing deed, but in this step’s never leaving the reality one has seen.

Section One · The Framework of Wondrous Practice: How Advance Becomes Wondrous Practice

Third is the subtlety of practice. It has two parts: first, practices are explained in general through increasing numbers; second, practices are explained through increasing numbers according to the different teaching gates.

“Practice” means advancing toward a destination. Without wisdom, practice cannot advance. Although the understanding of wisdom can guide practice, wisdom cannot be right without a right object. Wisdom is like the eye and practice like the foot; only with both eye and foot can one reach the cool pool. Understanding is the root of practice, while practice in turn brings wisdom to completion. Thus, when practice is complete, wisdom is complete. Wisdom makes principle manifest; when principle is exhausted, the activity of wisdom also comes to rest.

Yet merely saying that object, wisdom, and practice depend on one another still does not constitute wondrous practice. Wondrous practice means that one practice fully contains all practices. The scripture says that practitioners originally followed innumerable buddhas and fully practiced all paths. It also says that in the presence of immeasurable buddhas they practiced a profound and wondrous path, and that they completely practiced every path-dharma possessed by the buddhas. They are complete, deep, and exhaustive: complete means broad, deep means high-reaching, and exhaustive means ultimate.

This wondrous practice and the preceding subtleties of objects and wisdom speak of three from one and one from three. The subtlety of objects explained the marks of dharmas as they truly are; these marks fully possess the three virtues and are called the secret treasury. The subtlety of wisdom explained understanding of the marks of dharmas as they truly are; this understanding also fully possesses the three virtues, like three eyes on one face. The present subtlety of practice is what one actually performs, practicing in accord with what has been taught; this practice also fully possesses the three virtues, like the three dots of the siddham letter i. Whether three are spoken from one or one from three, nothing is lacking or diminished. It is therefore called wondrous practice.

Previously wisdom was explained in relation to objects; now practice should likewise be explained in relation to wisdom. If practices are explained through increasing numbers in relation to even one kind of wisdom, they are already as numerous as dust and cannot be exhausted in speech. How much more when each kind of wisdom guides many practices: their breadth is then like empty space. Once the meaning is grasped, words may be forgotten; there is no need to state every practice one by one.

The meaning of the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom is that when a bodhisattva practices prajñā, one dharma may serve as a practice that encompasses all practices, and immeasurably many instances of that one dharma may also serve as practices encompassing all practices. Two dharmas may encompass all practices, as may immeasurably many instances of two dharmas. This continues through ten, a hundred, and thousands of myriads of millions of dharmas, and through immeasurably many instances of ten, a hundred, and thousands of myriads of millions of dharmas, all serving as practices that encompass all practices.

Although practices are exceedingly numerous, wisdom is their root. Wisdom is like the master who guides the way, and the many practices like a company of merchants. Wisdom is like a sharp needle, and practice like a long thread. When wisdom drives the ox of practice, the cart is secure and can reach its destination. These practices of increasing number are guided by the wisdom of the truth of the ten suchnesses explained above, all the way through the wisdom of the one real truth. Grasping this meaning, one knows to guide every practice with right wisdom so that it enters the right object. The meaning can only be understood from afar; it cannot all be set down in writing.

Section Two · Increasing Numbers According to the Teachings: From One Practice to Inexpressible Practices

First come the Tripiṭaka Teaching’s practices of increasing number. In the Āgamas, the Buddha tells the monks that they should cultivate one practice, guaranteeing that they can realize the four fruits of śramaṇas. This one practice is vigilance of mind. If they guard the mind and cultivate vigilance, causing it to develop and spread widely, what must be done will be completed and nirvāṇa can be attained.

The Buddha also tells a monk that he should cultivate one practice: do not take what belongs to another. The monk replies that he already understands. When the Buddha asks how he understands, the monk answers that “what belongs to another” means forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles, and dharmas. The Buddha praises him. If these six are not taken, what must be done will be completed and nirvāṇa can be attained. To develop and spread it widely means to pass through all dharmas with a vigilant mind, remaining vigilant throughout the three realms and the six sense objects, and thereby reaching nirvāṇa.

Next, the number is increased to two in explaining practice. An Āgama says that a monk dwelling in an araṇya should cultivate two dharmas as practices: calm and insight. When cultivating calm, he can stop all evil; his disciplinary deportment and various prohibitions remain undamaged, and many qualities are accomplished. When cultivating insight, he contemplates suffering and knows suffering as it truly is. He similarly knows the arising of suffering, the exhaustion of suffering, and the essential path out of suffering. His contaminants are thereby ended and he receives no further existence. The Tathāgata cultivated in this way as well.

Next, the number is increased to three: discipline, concentration, and wisdom. These three are the stairway beyond the world and the standard of the Buddha-Dharma. The “Discipline Scripture” says: do no evil, undertake every good, and purify one’s own mind—this is the teaching of the buddhas. “Every evil” means offenses committed through the seven bodily and verbal branches, including distinctions of gravity and whether an offense has occurred; their marks are broadly explained in the five vinayas. Discipline prevents all such evils. “Every good” means wholesome bodily, verbal, and mental action. Whether the mind is scattered or still, the preceding and subsequent skillful means and the qualities of each factor and grove can all ascend in purity and are therefore called good. “Purify one’s own mind” means breaking wrong views and inversions, understanding worldly and world-transcending cause and effect and primary and auxiliary gates of practice, removing mental defilements, and washing away blemishes. This does not go beyond wisdom. The Buddha-Dharma is like a vast ocean, and discipline, concentration, and wisdom can encompass it completely.

If this meaning is understood, the same applies when four, five, six, or seven dharmas, all the way through hundreds of thousands of myriads of millions of dharmas, serve as practices encompassing all practices. These are called practices guided by lower wisdom.

Increasing Numbers in the Shared Teaching

The Shared Teaching’s increasing practices are not fixed as Shared Teaching on the authority of one particular scripture. They take only Dharma gates cultivated in common by the three vehicles and designate them shared. Here the increasing numbers of the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom are provisionally cited to reveal their form. The treatise says that when a bodhisattva practices prajñā, although knowing that dharmas share the one mark, the bodhisattva can also know all their various different marks; and although knowing their various different marks, the bodhisattva can also know that all dharmas share the one mark.

How does one contemplate all dharmas as sharing the one mark? One contemplates that all dharmas lack fixed marks. Consider the four elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—which are never separate from one another. Earth also contains water, fire, and wind; it is named earth only because the earth component predominates. The same applies to water, fire, and wind.

Now contemplate that fire has no three other distinct marks within it. If the other three elements truly existed within fire, all three should become hot. If they exist in fire but water and wind are not hot, the whole cannot be called fire. If all three are hot, they have abandoned their own natures and are all called fire, leaving no three other elements. Suppose it is said that the other three truly exist but are too subtle to be known. How does that differ from their absence? Only if coarse marks could be obtained could the subtle be known from the coarse. Since coarse marks cannot be obtained, neither can subtle marks. Thus no fixed marks of the elements can be obtained within fire, and no fixed marks of any dharma can be obtained. All dharmas therefore share the one mark.

First the one mark breaks the various different marks, and then no-mark breaks the one mark. No-mark itself must also be extinguished, like fire and wood burning all the fuel and finally burning themselves away. This is called contemplating all dharmas as the one mark, while the one mark itself is no-mark. The immeasurable totality of dharmas also shares the one mark, and the one mark is again no-mark. Two dharmas may likewise serve as practices encompassing all practices, continuing through a hundred and thousands of myriads of millions of dharmas. The rest can be inferred from this meaning and is not recorded at length.

Increasing Numbers in the Distinct Teaching

The Distinct Teaching’s practices of increasing number are like Sudhana entering the Dharma realm and hearing one dharma as a practice at the seat of each spiritual adviser in turn. Sometimes it is an illusion-like samādhi, sometimes leaping from a cliff and entering a mass of fire, sometimes counting grains of sand and reading bodily marks, and sometimes arousing bodhicitta. For each different one-practice, the spiritual adviser says: the Buddha-Dharma is like an ocean; I know only this one Dharma gate, and the rest are not what I know. This continues through one hundred and ten spiritual advisers, each with a Dharma gate of this kind. Every practice can break fundamental ignorance and enter a profound and wondrous object. The same pattern should be inferred for practices of two, three, or hundreds of thousands of myriads of millions of dharmas.

Increasing Numbers in the Perfect Teaching

The Perfect Teaching’s increasing practices are like the one-practice samādhi cultivated by bodhisattvas as explained in the “Mañjuśrī Questions Scripture.” One should sit cross-legged in a quiet chamber, bind one’s object to the Dharma realm, and take each thought as the Dharma realm. Every inversion of fundamental ignorance remains forever quiescent like empty space. This one practice belongs to all unobstructed persons; one road leaves birth and death; one enters every dharma through impartial contemplation; the mind of understanding and wisdom is quiescent, with none comparable throughout the three realms. This is one practice encompassing all practices.

Increasing the number to two dharmas serving as practices that encompass all practices gives calm and insight. Increasing to three gives hearing, reflection, and cultivation, as well as discipline, concentration, and wisdom. Four gives the four applications of mindfulness. Five gives the five gates of dhyāna. Six gives the six perfections. Seven gives the seven wholesome dharmas. Eight gives the eightfold path. Nine gives the nine great dhyānas. Ten gives the ten objects or the ten contemplations forming the vehicle. How could practices of a hundred, thousands of myriads of millions, incalculable, and inexpressible Dharma gates all be recorded? Once the meaning is grasped, the rest can be understood by analogy.

Judging the Coarse and Wondrous, Relating to the Coarse, and Opening the Coarse

Although all explain practice through increasing numbers, practices in the different teaching gates must still be judged as coarse or wondrous. The Tripiṭaka Teaching’s increasing practices are guided by the wisdom of arising and ceasing, seek only escape from suffering, and finally come to rest in the conjured city; they are therefore coarse. The Shared Teaching’s wisdom embodying dharmas is ingenious, but it still guides only beyond suffering and has the same destination as reducing the body to ashes and cutting off wisdom. The Distinct Teaching’s wisdom guides practitioners very far, step by step from the shallow into the deep, but its practices remain mutually separate and concrete practice and principle have not yet perfectly interfused; it too is coarse. In the Perfect Teaching’s increasing practices, every practice interfuses with every other and wisdom is complete; they are therefore wondrous.

The present scripture belongs to the Perfect Teaching’s increasing numbers. The “Contemplation Scripture” says that during three periods of seven days one advances diligently with one mind; this explains wondrous practice through one dharma. It also says that whether walking or sitting one contemplates this scripture; this explains wondrous practice through two dharmas. It says further that one who hears this scripture, contemplates and cultivates it, practices the bodhisattva path well; this explains wondrous practice through three dharmas. The four Practices of Ease explain it through four; disciples of the five grades through five; and purification of the six faculties through six. All of these speak of the wondrous in relation to the preceding coarse practices.

Next the coarse is opened to reveal the wondrous. Lowering one’s head, raising a hand, piling earth, or playing with sand can all accomplish the buddha path. Although various dharmas are taught, in reality they are for the One Vehicle. Every practice becomes wondrous, leaving no fixed coarse to serve as contrast. Once the coarse has been opened, relational wondrousness immediately becomes absolute.

Section Three · The Number Five: First the Sequential Five Practices, Then the Perfect Five

Explaining wondrous practice through the number five also has two parts: first the distinct and sequential five practices, and then the perfectly interfused five practices.

The Nirvāṇa Sūtra teaches five practices: noble practice, brahmā practice, heavenly practice, infant practice, and illness practice. Noble practice in turn has discipline, concentration, and wisdom.

Section Four · Noble Practice in Discipline: Faith Establishes Vows, and Vows Establish Discipline

The scripture says that if a bodhisattva hears of great nirvāṇa and gives rise to faith after hearing, the bodhisattva thinks: the buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, possess the unsurpassed path, the great right Dharma, and the great assembly’s right practice. Practice is established from here.

Hearing of great nirvāṇa means faith in the fruit and also in the truth of cessation. “Possessing the unsurpassed path” and the words that follow mean faith in practices capable of revealing the fruit. The unsurpassed path is faith in wisdom; the great right Dharma is faith in concentration; the great assembly’s right practice is faith in discipline. This is faith in the cause and in the path.

The bodhisattva further grieves that self and all sentient beings have broken discipline, committed offenses, and lost the happiness of humans and gods and the happiness of nirvāṇa. This is knowing arising. Their wandering through birth and death and receiving the results of bad destinies is knowing suffering. Suffering and arising oppose discipline, concentration, and wisdom, and therefore there is no path. Without the path nirvāṇa cannot be attained, and therefore there is no cessation.

Wishing to remove suffering and arising, the bodhisattva arouses great compassion and makes two vows. Wishing to give sentient beings the happiness of path and cessation, the bodhisattva arouses great kindness and makes two more vows. Vows are followed by actual practice. The bodhisattva reflects that home life is confining like a prison and prevents pure cultivation of brahmā practice for a whole lifetime, while renunciation is quiet and broad like empty space. The bodhisattva therefore leaves home and desire, receives discipline through the motion with a fourth announcement, and equally guards the intrinsically grave precepts and the precepts that prevent worldly censure. The rākṣasas of craving and views are not allowed to damage the flotation bladder of discipline. The details are as explained in the Mohe Zhiguan.

Through keeping discipline, the bodhisattva possesses five branches: the discipline of purity in fundamental actions; residual purity in the preceding and following retinues; purity in awareness that is not awareness of evil; purity in mindfulness that guards right mindfulness; and discipline dedicated toward complete attainment of the unsurpassed path.

The discipline of purity in fundamental actions takes the natural discipline of the ten wholesome acts as the root of all discipline and is guarded with an uncontaminated mind; it is therefore called pure. In residual purity in the preceding and following retinues, sthūlātyaya and the like are preceding retinues, and the thirteen and the like are following retinues. “Residual” means precepts not listed in the vinaya but separately established in other scriptures, such as the twenty-four precepts in the vaipulya teachings. These first two branches are received through vinaya procedures. The final three are not received through a procedure but arise naturally when the corresponding dharmas are attained.

Purity in awareness that is not awareness of evil is discipline co-arisen with concentration. If śīla is impure, samādhi cannot appear. When discipline is pure, concrete obstructions are removed and future dhyāna can arise; intrinsic obstructions are removed and fundamental dhyāna can arise. When evil initial and sustained thoughts are extinguished, this is called discipline co-arisen with concentration.

Purity in mindfulness that guards right mindfulness is the four applications of mindfulness. One contemplates principle with right mindfulness. Although real realization has not yet arisen, resembling right mindfulness can give rise to the real path and accomplish discipline co-arisen with the path. It is therefore called purity in mindfulness that guards right mindfulness.

A further distinction may be made. Discipline co-arisen with concentration arises in dependence on a concentrated mind and belongs to the good of stopping. Discipline co-arisen with the path arises in dependence on discerning wisdom and belongs to the good of practice. The movement of the constructed and the immovability of the non-constructed both belong to vinaya. Why? Discipline means prevention. Once the mind co-arisen with concentration is attained, evil no longer arises; once the path-born gives rise to the real, offenses never arise again. Both are therefore called discipline.

Discipline dedicated toward complete attainment of the unsurpassed path means that within every precept the bodhisattva possesses the four universal vows and six perfections, arouses a firm and essential vow, and dedicates the merit to awakening. It is therefore called Great Vehicle discipline. The four universal vows are as explained above.

In terms of the six perfections, becoming weary of home life and relinquishing what one loves is giving. Not violating even the slightest point and refusing the rākṣasas’ demand for the flotation bladder is discipline. Restraining body and mind and patiently enduring blows and abuse is patience toward beings. Enduring the eight winds, cold and heat, desire and anger, and the others is patience toward dharmas. When craving and views cannot damage one, that is forbearance. Guarding discipline so that a mind wishing to violate it does not arise is diligence. Resolving to keep discipline, not being deceived by doubt, and remaining single-minded and unmoving is concentration. Clearly discerning cause and effect, knowing discipline to be the root that correctly accords with liberation and gives birth to the saints of all three vehicles rather than the chicken and dog disciplines among the sixty-two wrong views, is prajñā.

The bodhisattva makes additional vows to restrain the mind: rather than break discipline and accept another person’s bedding, the bodhisattva would let the body lie on a scorching iron bed. Twelve vows are used to restrain the mind.

Further vows are made that all sentient beings may attain prohibitive, pure, wholesome, unbroken, unanalyzed, Great Vehicle, nonretrogressive, conforming, ultimate, and pāramitā-complete discipline. These ten vows protect sentient beings. Within the single mind of keeping discipline, the bodhisattva adorns discipline with many vows and practices. Every other mind of practice should be the same.

The ten precepts that protect others unfold from the five branches one practices oneself. Prohibitive, pure, and wholesome discipline unfold from the fundamental and retinue branches. Rules established through the procedures governing sections and categories are prohibitive discipline. Only when prohibitive discipline gives rise to the non-constructed substance of discipline is it called pure; purity is the good of stopping. Wholesome discipline is the good of practice.

Unbroken discipline unfolds from purity in awareness that is not awareness of evil. Even while guarding the seven bodily and verbal branches, if deluded thoughts repeatedly arise, practice still has gaps. When future dhyāna arises, concrete practice is unbroken; when fundamental dhyāna is attained, intrinsic practice is unbroken.

Unanalyzed discipline unfolds from purity in mindfulness that guards right mindfulness and is discipline co-arisen with the path. Extinguishing form to enter emptiness is the path-born discipline that analyzes dharmas. Here one embodies dharmas to enter emptiness, and it is therefore called unanalyzed. It is also called unanalyzed because path-born discipline is already present within, making the aggregate of discipline firm and incapable of being broken apart.

Great Vehicle, nonretrogressive, conforming, ultimate, and pāramitā-complete discipline unfold from discipline dedicated toward complete attainment of the unsurpassed path.

Great Vehicle discipline means that a bodhisattva equally guards intrinsically grave precepts and those preventing worldly censure. In seeking the buddha path for oneself, intrinsically grave precepts are urgent; in transforming sentient beings, precepts preventing censure are also urgent. The Lesser Vehicle subdues only oneself, so intrinsically grave precepts are urgent; because liberating others is not its work, precepts preventing censure are more relaxed. A bodhisattva completely guards both and is therefore said to possess Great Vehicle discipline.

Nonretrogressive discipline means that even when following what ordinary people see as not the path, one possesses skillful means. One may enter brothels, taverns, and other unlawful places to liberate people, yet not regress from prohibitive discipline oneself, like a physician who treats disease without being contaminated by it. It is therefore called nonretrogressive.

Conforming discipline conforms both to the capacities of sentient beings and to principle. Ultimate discipline vertically exhausts the unsurpassed Dharma. Pāramitā-complete discipline horizontally perfects all things and lacks no dharma.

The Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom also teaches ten kinds of discipline. Its unbroken, unviolated, unpierced, and unmixed disciplines correspond to the prohibitive, pure, wholesome, and unbroken disciplines under the fundamental branch of the Great Sutra. Its discipline conforming to the path corresponds to the unanalyzed discipline under the Great Sutra’s branch of guarding right mindfulness. Its unattached discipline corresponds to nonretrogressive discipline under the dedication branch. Its discipline praised by the wise corresponds to the Great Sutra’s Great Vehicle discipline. Its sovereign discipline corresponds to the Great Sutra’s sovereign discipline. Its discipline conforming to concentration corresponds to the Great Sutra’s conforming discipline. Its complete discipline corresponds to the Great Sutra’s pāramitā discipline. The Great Sutra says “ultimate,” while the Great Treatise says “conforming to concentration.” The two are generally alike with a slight difference; the meaning suffers no loss.

To clarify a bodhisattva’s sequential cultivation of noble practice, the Nirvāṇa Sūtra completely lists all disciplines from shallow to deep and from beginning to conclusion. If they are guarded well, one enters the first ground of immovability. Being immovable, nonretrogressive, not fallen, and undispersed is called noble practice in discipline.

Because noble practice in discipline advances from the shallow beginning to the deep conclusion, its coarse and wondrous aspects must now be judged. Prohibitive, pure, and wholesome discipline belong to the disciplinary code. Because the disciplinary code encompasses the community in common, it must establish rank, stage, and order. Although bodhisattvas and buddhas are present, no separate community is established for them; the discipline is therefore the same, distinguished only by whether the mind of buddhahood is aroused. Thus these three disciplinary-code precepts are encompassed by the Tripiṭaka Teaching. Unbroken discipline is discipline co-arisen with concentration, and fundamental dhyāna concerns concrete marks; it too is encompassed by the Tripiṭaka Teaching. These are therefore coarse.

Unanalyzed discipline is path-born discipline that embodies dharmas and is encompassed by the Shared Teaching. Great Vehicle, nonretrogressive, and the other disciplines are encompassed by the Distinct Teaching and also extend into the Shared Teaching. The Shared Teaching likewise emerges from emptiness to transform others, can accord with capacities and principle, and does not regress on the path. Yet it practices according to the real truth and still does not equal a practitioner of the Distinct Teaching. Relatively speaking, the Distinct Teaching is therefore wondrous.

Conforming, ultimate, complete, and the other disciplines are encompassed by the Perfect Teaching. Manifesting varied deportments without emerging from the concentration of cessation and manifesting the affairs of ordinary beings without abandoning the Dharma of the path is called conforming. Because only the Buddha fully possesses pure discipline while all others may still be called impure, it is called ultimate. Because discipline itself is the Dharma realm, fully possessing all buddha-dharmas and sentient-being dharmas and reaching the other shore of śīla, it is called pāramitā-complete discipline.

The meaning of the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa is that only one who keeps discipline in this way is called an upholder of the vinaya and one who understands well. The Lotus Sūtra says that throughout the long night the assembly kept the Buddha’s pure discipline, long cultivated brahmā practice in the Dharma king’s Dharma, and only today gained its recompense. It also says that only the Buddha can know Rāhula’s hidden practice. Does this not reveal only perfect discipline as wondrous in relation to all the preceding disciplines as coarse? The initial discipline may also be likened to milk, the intermediate disciplines to the three middle flavors, and the final discipline to clarified essence. Clarified essence is wondrous.

Next the coarse is opened to reveal the wondrous. Someone says that the Brahmā’s Net Sūtra contains bodhisattva discipline. The present response asks: what kind of bodhisattva discipline is this? If it belongs to bodhisattvas of the Tripiṭaka or Shared Teaching, there should be a separate bodhisattva community. Since no separate community has been established, how can their discipline differ? If there is a separate bodhisattva discipline, which kind is a separately established pratyekabuddha discipline? The three vehicles of the Tripiṭaka Teaching do not establish three separate communities, so separate bodhisattva and pratyekabuddha disciplines cannot be established. If understood in terms of bodhisattvas of the Distinct or Perfect Teaching, they can be established, because bodhisattvas exist outside the shared community of the three vehicles and therefore have a separate discipline.

Someone asks: if bodhisattva discipline exists outside the community of the three vehicles, what of pratyekabuddha discipline? The answer is that no separate pratyekabuddha is established outside the community of the three vehicles. This remains only a relational explanation of discipline in contrast with the coarse.

True opening of the coarse means that one who studies vinaya is a student of Great Vehicle training (śikṣā), and this training is the Great Vehicle’s light of ultimate meaning. The light of ultimate meaning is neither blue, yellow, red, nor white. The three refuges, five precepts, ten wholesome acts, and two hundred and fifty precepts are all the Great Vehicle. Where could a coarse discipline remain isolated outside wondrous discipline? Since discipline is immediately wondrous, the persons who receive and keep it are so as well. The scripture’s statement “you truly are my child” reveals precisely this meaning. This is called absolutely wondrous discipline.

Fascicle Three, Part Two ends here.

Fahua Xuanyi, Fascicle Four, Part One, attributed as spoken by the Great Master Zhiyi of Tiantai.

Section Five · Noble Practice in Concentration: From Worldly Dhyāna to the Highest World-Transcending Dhyāna

Noble practice in concentration is briefly divided into three kinds: first, worldly dhyāna; second, world-transcending dhyāna; third, highest world-transcending dhyāna.

Worldly dhyāna is further divided into two kinds. First is flavored fundamental dhyāna, characterized as concealed, defiled, and indeterminate. Second is purified fundamental dhyāna, characterized as unconcealed, undefiled, and determinate. They are called fundamental because they are the foundation of worldly and world-transcending dharmas. The meaning of the Large Prajñāpāramitā is that buddhas attain the path, turn the Dharma wheel, and enter nirvāṇa entirely within dhyāna. Deep contemplation of this foundation can give birth to superior, subtle, and wondrous concentrations, and it is therefore called fundamental.

“Concealed” means realization in darkness without contemplative wisdom. “Defiled” means developing attachment to the flavor of each successive level. “Indeterminate” means that the object is unclear. Flavored fundamental dhyāna has three classes—dhyāna, immeasurables, and formless attainments—which are the twelve gates made from four dhyānas, four immeasurables, and four formless attainments.

Flavored Fundamental Dhyāna: Four Dhyānas, Four Immeasurables, and Four Formless Attainments

The initial skillful means for cultivating dhyāna is to distinguish wind, panting, and breath well and know clearly which is proper breath. Count steadily and gently, neither adding nor subtracting. If the counted breaths gradually become subtle, skillfully change the object and regulate it exactly, then realize the preliminary skillful means. At both coarse and subtle settling, dharmas arise that can support the body; one then enters desire-realm concentration or access concentration. When the eight contacts occur and the five factors are accomplished, the first dhyāna arises.

The meaning of the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom is that after leaving the fierce fire of lust one attains cooling concentration, as a person oppressed by great heat becomes happy on entering a cold pool. To leave a lower level and enter a higher one, ordinary people generally use the six contemplations, while disciples of the Buddha commonly cultivate the eight kinds of noble disposition.

Within the first dhyāna’s factors of initial and sustained thought, practitioners become disenchanted with initial and sustained thought and regard the first dhyāna as suffering. Initial and sustained thought have the two faults of coarseness and obstruction: because they disturb the concentrated mind, they are suffering. Joy and pleasure arise from them, and so they are coarse; they also obstruct higher concentration, and so they are obstructive. The second dhyāna is different and is therefore called superior, wondrous, and emergent.

In general, cultivation of the second dhyāna has three steps. First, know the faults of the first dhyāna and no longer delight in it. Second, rebuke it. Third, analyze and break it. Leaving the first dhyāna in this way is the mark of cultivating the second. When one skillfully takes the higher level as object and becomes disenchanted with the lower, body and mind, inside and out, become luminous and clear. Joy arises together with the four completed factors. The meaning of the Great Treatise is that one thereby removes initial and sustained thought and enters the place of single consciousness; because the inner mind is pure, joy and pleasure arise from concentration.

The second dhyāna has already left initial and sustained thought, and so no further skillful means can be constructed within concentration. After emerging, one again cultivates the six practices to reject the lower and advance to the higher, just as when abandoning the first dhyāna. Body and mind then become utterly quiescent, relying neither within nor without; pleasure arises with the completion of five factors. The meaning of the Great Treatise is that craving gives rise to suffering and the loss of joy gives rise to sorrow; apart from suffering and pleasure the body is at ease, possessing equanimity, mindfulness, and skillful means. To reject the lower and advance higher, one again cultivates the preceding six practices.

After skillful cultivation, the mind suddenly opens and brightens; inhalation and exhalation cease; equanimity arises, and the object is empty, clear, and quiescent, with four factors complete. If one knows the fault of pleasure, one sees the great peace of immovability. Sorrow and joy were removed before; pain and pleasure are now also ended.

After inwardly realizing the four dhyānas, a practitioner who wishes to cultivate merit outwardly should study the four immeasurables. They have shared and separate modes of cultivation. The shared cultivation is the statement in the Great Treatise that the mind of kindness may be cultivated among all four dhyānas of the form realm. In separate cultivation, the first dhyāna’s discriminating initial and sustained thought makes compassion easy to cultivate; its factor of joy makes sympathetic joy easy, its factor of pleasure makes kindness easy, and its factor of one-pointedness makes equanimity easy. Another allocation makes compassion easiest in the first dhyāna, sympathetic joy in the second, kindness in the third, and equanimity in the fourth. These are the places in which the four immeasurable concentrations are cultivated.

In cultivation, one takes as object the person before one, visualizing that person leaving suffering, attaining happiness, rejoicing, and remaining impartial, and then enters concentration. When dhyāna arises, one inwardly attains the dharmas of joy, pleasure, and impartiality and outwardly also sees the person before one leaving suffering and attaining happiness. Sometimes the inward attainment occurs without the outward vision; sometimes the outward vision occurs without the inward attainment. Their correct and deviant forms must be distinguished.

A practitioner wishing to leave the cage of the form realm cultivates the four formless concentrations. Form is removed while mind is retained, each thought continuing in dependence on the last, and they are therefore called the four formless attainments. The skillful means first rebukes form as the root of all suffering: the accumulations of hunger, thirst, cold, and heat all rely on the physical body. It then praises space as pure, wondrous, and free from every pressure. Transcending all form and corresponding with the concentration of space, the concentration of neither pain nor pleasure increases twofold. Entering deep concentration, one sees only empty space and no various marks of form, while the mind no longer scatters.

Because the concentration of space has been attained and the form realm transcended, this is called surpassing every perception of form. Because the dharma of space supports the mind and prevents perceptions of form from arising, it is called extinguishing perceptions of resistance. Because one has decisively relinquished form and no longer remembers or longs for its various forms, it is called not recollecting various perceptions of form. Rebuking the lower and taking the higher as object each have additional skillful means, explained in detail in the Dhyāna Gate. Flavored fundamental dhyāna ends here.

Purified Fundamental Dhyāna: Six Wondrous Gates, Sixteen Superior Practices, and Universal Illumination

Purified fundamental dhyāna has the three marks of being unconcealed, undefiled, and determinate, precisely the opposite of the preceding kind. It too has three classes: the six wondrous gates, sixteen superior practices, and universal illumination.

Nirvāṇa is subtle and wondrous, and these six dharmas enable one to penetrate it; they are therefore called the six wondrous gates. The three Dharma gates suit three kinds of capacity. Those with a predominance of wisdom are taught the six wondrous gates, each of which can give rise to the uncontaminated while still in the desire realm. Those with a predominance of concentration are taught the sixteen superior practices; the uncontaminated does not yet arise at lower dhyāna levels, and they awaken only when higher concentration is complete. Those whose concentration and wisdom are equal are taught universal illumination; its contemplative wisdom is deep and subtle and can give rise to the uncontaminated from lower through higher levels. This allocation follows capacities. A different allocation applies when countering illnesses and obstructions.

Broadly explained, the cultivation of these three dharmas encompasses every dhyāna. Here only one vertical path is established through their sequence of arising before and after. The six wondrous gates combine cultivation and realization, making twelve dharmas. When the Buddha said “coursing and resting in three and four, producing twelve,” he meant cultivating counting and realizing counting, continuing through cultivating purification and realizing purification.

To cultivate counting, practitioners first harmonize the breath so that it is neither rough nor slippery, then serenely and gently count from one to ten, collecting the mind on the count and preventing it from racing and scattering. Correspondence with counting is realization of counting: the mind naturally counts from one to ten without further effort, abides in the count on its own, and becomes subtle as the breath becomes subtle. When counting breath seems too coarse, counting is released and following the breath is cultivated. The same distinction between cultivation and realization applies to turning and purification.

Contemplation has three meanings. First is contemplative wisdom that contemplates the real. Second is contemplation through an understanding one has attained, namely, constructed contemplation. Third is actual contemplation. Here actual contemplation is used first and contemplative wisdom afterward.

When cultivating actual contemplation, one carefully observes the body with the mind’s eye within a concentrated mind. Subtle inhalation and exhalation are like wind in empty space. The thirty-six things—skin, flesh, sinews, bones, and the rest—lack substance like a plantain trunk; within and without they are impure and deeply repellent. One further observes that feelings of joy, pleasure, and the others within concentration all bear the mark of destruction and are suffering rather than pleasure. One observes that consciousness within concentration is impermanent, never pausing for an instant and providing nowhere to grasp. One also observes that wholesome and unwholesome dharmas within concentration all exist through conditions and have no self-nature.

Contemplation in this way breaks the four inversions. Since no personal self can be obtained, on what fixed self could dhyāna depend? This is called cultivating contemplation. During such cultivation, one feels inhalation and exhalation reach every pore, and the mind’s eye opens and brightens. One thoroughly sees the thirty-six things and nests of worms within the body and the impurity within and without; one sees all sufferings press upon it, every instant change, and every dharma lack self-nature. Compassion and joy arise in the mind, which no longer relies on anything. One thereby attains the four applications of mindfulness and breaks the four inversions. This is called correspondence with contemplation; the details cannot all be recorded. When the Buddha sat beneath the tree and inwardly contemplated ānāpāna, first counting and then following, it was exactly this dhyāna method.

The names of the sixteen superior practices are not explained here in detail. They are named from their corresponding conditions.

The cultivation marks of the sixteen superior practices begin with knowing the breath entering and leaving, which replaces counting. Regulate the breath until it is continuously subtle and follow it single-mindedly. On inhaling, know it from nose to navel; on exhaling, know it from navel to nose, following and illuminating it without distraction. Know wind, panting, and air to be coarse and breath to be subtle. When coarse breath enters, regulate it until it is subtle, like a gatekeeper who knows who enters and leaves, blocks the bad, and admits the good. Know whether the breath is rough or smooth, light or heavy, cool or warm, long-lasting or brief, difficult or easy.

Know further that breath is what life relies upon: if a single breath does not return, life ends. One thereby perceives the fragility and impermanence of breath and life and does not give rise to attachment or pride. Knowing that breath is not self, one does not give rise to views of self. Knowing the breath as long or short corresponds to desire-realm concentration. Knowing it throughout the body corresponds to access concentration. Removing every bodily activity corresponds to the factors of initial and sustained thought in the first dhyāna. Experiencing joy corresponds to the joy factor; experiencing pleasure to the pleasure factor; experiencing all mental activity to the factor of one-pointedness.

Causing the mind to rejoice is the dhyāna accompanied by joy. Collecting the mind is the factor of one-pointedness in the second dhyāna. Liberating the mind is the pleasure of the third. Contemplating impermanence is the immovability of the fourth. Contemplating dispersal corresponds to the sphere of space; contemplating dispassion to the sphere of consciousness; contemplating cessation to the sphere of nothing whatsoever; contemplating relinquishment to neither perception nor nonperception. At contemplation of relinquishment, one attains the nirvāṇa of the three vehicles. Horizontally explained, contemplative wisdom corresponds to the four applications of mindfulness.

In universal-illumination dhyāna, practitioners contemplate breath, physical form, and mind as three things without distinction. They carefully observe inhalation and exhalation: there is no accumulation on entering and no dispersal on leaving; no fixed road is traversed in coming and no trace can be followed in going. Like wind in empty space, breath’s nature has no existence. Breath depends on the body, but the body itself has no fixed substance. Deluded thought from a past life brings about the four elements of this life; the four elements enclose empty space and are provisionally called a body. The six divisions beginning with the head, the thirty-six things, and the four subtle elements are each not the body.

One next contemplates that the body exists through mind, while mind arises through conditions, arising and ceasing so swiftly that no abiding place or fixed shape can be seen. There is only a name, and the name too is empty. Contemplating breath, form, and mind in this way, one cannot obtain an independent nature for any of the three. Since the three things cannot be obtained, neither can any dharma. This is the cultivation mark of universal-illumination dhyāna.

Its mark of realization is inward realization of the real truth, whose empty quiescence accords with one’s contemplative understanding. One also penetrates body, form, and breath in sequence with complete clarity and knows the correspondences between the world’s astronomy and geography and the body. One can fully possess the concentrations of all three realms, know that subtle afflictions remain at neither perception nor nonperception, break delusion, give rise to the real, and attain the nirvāṇa of the three vehicles. All details are in the Dhyāna Gate. Worldly dhyāna ends here.

World-Transcending Dhyāna: Contemplating, Refining, Perfuming, and Cultivating

Second is world-transcending dhyāna, which has four kinds: contemplating, refining, perfuming, and cultivating.

Contemplative dhyāna includes the nine corpse contemplations, eight liberations, eight superior bases, and ten universal bases. These four groups are collectively called contemplative dhyāna. To break the fierce fire of lust, practitioners must gradually develop and mature visualization; each contemplation must correspond with concentration. Visualization and concentration support the mind and keep it from scattering, thereby removing worldly craving and breaking the six desires.

Some desire red, white, yellow, black, and other colors. Some desire handsome appearance, some dignified deportment, some seductive speech, some smooth skin, and some a person who pleases them. These six desires are like a deep abyss in which practitioners sink.

Cultivating the nine corpse contemplations removes the six thieves. The contemplation of death breaks desire for deportment and speech. Swelling, decay, and being eaten break desire for appearance. Blood-smeared, livid, and festering contemplations break desire for color. Skeleton and burning contemplations break desire for smoothness. Together, the nine remove desire for a beloved person. Being eaten and scattered also remove attachment to a particular pleasing person. Besides removing desire, the nine weaken anger and delusion and shake the mountain of the ninety-eight proclivities. Though only an initial gate of impurity contemplation, they can accomplish a great work, like relying on a floating corpse to cross the sea.

The names of the eight liberations are not listed here in detail. They turn away from pure and attractive sense desires and relinquish the mind’s attachment and are therefore called liberations.

To cultivate the eight liberations, practitioners first keep discipline purely, make great vows, and seek to accomplish a great work. They straighten body and thought and carefully contemplate the right big toe, imagining it the size of a soybean, black, swollen, and blistered. Once this perception is established, they next contemplate it as large as a mottled bean, then a finger, then a hen’s egg, and in sequence as two, three, four, and five fingers.

Next contemplate the sole, heel, ankle, joints beside the foot, knee, thigh, and hip, all swollen; contemplate the right leg in the same way. Next contemplate the excretory passages, waist, spine, abdomen, back, chest, and ribs, all swollen. Then contemplate the right shoulder blade, arm, elbow, wrist, palm, five fingers, head, and jaw. Observe the body from feet to head and then head to feet. Seeing only swelling, the mind becomes disgusted.

Next contemplate decay and festering. Worms and pus flow from the excretory passages, stinking worse than a dead dog. Having seen one’s own body this way, contemplate the beloved as the same. Inwardly, views of self are broken; outwardly, craving is broken. Abiding in this observation for a long time removes worldly craving.

Next remove skin and flesh and carefully contemplate the white bones. See bones with blue, yellow, white, dove-gray, and other colors, and know that none of these bone marks are self. Attaining this contemplation is called desire-realm concentration.

When next contemplating bones as blue, see the whole earth in east, west, south, and north as a blue mark. The same applies to contemplating yellow, white, and dove-gray. This is the mark of access concentration. Next contemplate the bone-person emitting light between the brows and see a buddha within the light. This is the mark of accomplishing the first liberation. The arising marks of the eight liberations in sequence are explained in detail in the Dhyāna Gate.

Among the eight superior bases, the first two are in the first dhyāna, the third and fourth in the second, and the final four in the fourth. Because the third dhyāna has abundant pleasure and a duller mind, no superior base is established there. The preceding liberations were not yet sovereign over whether their objects were few or many. Through deeper and subtler contemplation, the superior bases can victoriously know and see the few and many, beautiful and ugly, like a swift horse that can break a battle line and also be controlled by its rider.

The ten universal bases blend eight colors and two mental bases into one another until they vastly and universally fill everything and transform without obstruction. Details are likewise found in the Dhyāna Gate.

Refining dhyāna is the nine sequential concentrations. Although the eight concentrations have already been attained, intervals still remain during entry. They are now made thoroughly practiced so that one enters in sequence from the first and shallowest to the final and deepest without impurity or interval. What previously could not occur in sequence is made sequential, and they are therefore called sequential concentrations. They are also called refining dhyāna because uncontaminated wisdom refines contaminated concentration and removes intervening coarseness and impurity. They are further called refining because all concentrations are evenly harmonized so that concentration and wisdom are equal and uninterrupted. The Abhidharma speaks of perfuming and refining but only uses the uncontaminated to perfume the four dhyānas. Here the uncontaminated universally refines all eight levels, producing the uninterrupted samādhi of sequential entry.

Perfuming dhyāna is the lion’s-sport samādhi. The preceding refining dhyāna enabled uninterrupted sequential entry. Now one can not only enter in uninterrupted sequence but also emerge in uninterrupted sequence, removing coarse intervening weight, attachment to dharmas, and dust from delight in flavors. Like a lion that can retreat and advance while shaking off all dust, practitioners who enter and emerge from this Dharma universally perfume the dhyānas so that all become penetrating, effective, and freely transformable, like leather smoked until supple enough to be fashioned at will.

Cultivating dhyāna is transcending samādhi. One can enter by leaping from near to near and from near to far, and can also emerge and abide through leaps. This is the deepest point of the qualities of concentration and is therefore called the summit dhyāna; one can enter and emerge freely within every Dharma gate.

Further, the nine sequential concentrations are skillful at entering the eight liberations; the lion’s sport is skillful at emerging from them; and transcending samādhi is skillful at abiding in them. The same meaning applies to skillful entry, emergence, and abiding in hundreds of thousands of samādhis.

Just as a painter can blend only five colors and paint immeasurable hues, and worldly recompense can depend only on the four elements yet give rise to all five aggregates, so dhyāna depends only on contemplating, refining, perfuming, and cultivating yet gives rise to every supernormal transformation without lacking any. The Great Sutra says that a bodhisattva abides in dhyāna and attains the ground of forbearance. A ground has the two meanings of supporting and producing. Every dhyāna fully possesses compassion, vows, factors of the path, the six perfections, and all other practices.

When contemplative wisdom is explained within discipline and concentration, it is the shared application of mindfulness. Contemplative wisdom in itself is the application of mindfulness by nature. Taking together discipline, concentration, and the other objects, wisdoms, and words gives the conditioned application of mindfulness. Further, impurity contemplation breaks the inversion of purity and is the application of mindfulness to the body. Contemplating the pain and pleasure experienced by body and mind in dhyāna and seeing feelings in the three periods and within and without as unobtainable breaks the inversion of pleasure and is the application of mindfulness to feeling. Contemplating minds in the dhyānas—wholesome and unwholesome action occurs because mind exists, but without a fixed mind there is no fixed agent—breaks the inversion of self and is the application of mindfulness to dharmas. Contemplating mind’s arising and ceasing and the discontinuity of its earlier and later limits breaks the inversion of permanence and is the application of mindfulness to mind.

The eight liberations contemplate the four applications of mindfulness; the nine sequential concentrations refine them; the lion’s sport perfumes them; and transcending samādhi cultivates them. The two vehicles cultivate these five kinds of dhyāna for their own cessation and make the four withered applications of mindfulness; this cannot be called the ground of forbearance. Bodhisattvas deeply contemplate the applications to transform sentient beings, bear sentient beings through compassionate vows, and make the four flourishing applications of mindfulness. This is the Great Vehicle and is therefore called the ground of forbearance.

Someone asks: since the formless realm has no physical body, how can it fully possess the four applications of mindfulness?

The answer is that the Abhidharma says the formless realm has discipline co-arisen with the path. Discipline is non-constructed form. Because it corresponds by taking the uncontaminated as object, this disciplinary form follows uncontaminated dharmas into the formless realm. Satyasiddhi scholars say that form is an unmanifest dharma and does not reach the formless realm. The Śāriputra Abhidharma Śāstra says that the formless realm has form. Thus even within Lesser Vehicle explanations there are already two positions. The Great Sutra further says that the form of the formless realm is not known by śrāvakas. If so, what prevents the four applications of mindfulness from extending through the formless realm?

Another question asks: in the dhyānas one can speak only of the four applications of mindfulness, and even the four right efforts have not yet been separately established. How can all the factors of the path already be present?

The answer is that when names are established according to stages, the factors of the path following the applications of mindfulness have not yet been reached. In actual cultivation, however, the applications already possess every factor of the path. The meaning of the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom is that initially cultivating the wholesome contaminated five aggregates and gaining right recollection within conditioned dharmas is the wisdom of the applications of mindfulness. The four forms of effort are the four right efforts. Cultivation within a concentrated mind is called the four bases of supernormal power. The arising of five wholesome roots is called the five faculties; their growth is called the five powers. Discerning the function of the path is called the seven factors of awakening. Practice on a secure path is called the eightfold path. Since the initial wholesome contaminated dharmas can already possess all these, why wait until the path of seeing for the eightfold path? As the applications possess the thirty-seven factors, the stages of warmth, summit, and the others can be understood by analogy. What is true of contemplative dhyāna is also true of refining, perfuming, and cultivating.

Within every dhyāna, a bodhisattva feels compassion for sentient beings according to the Dharma gate entered, like parents who do not forget their children when they obtain food. The bodhisattva pities sentient beings in the darkness of delusion. Rather than seeking the happiness of dhyāna within, they seek it in external objects and become immersed in the five desires. They suffer while seeking, fear loss after gaining, and grieve when loss comes. The desires have no true happiness, and the bodhisattva therefore arouses compassion.

Given these faults of the five desires, how can they be left? If the happiness of dhyāna is attained, one is no longer deceived by desire. The bodhisattva therefore arouses kindness and from it also makes the four universal vows.

Cultivation of the six perfections within the dhyānas also has distinct marks. Sentient beings are bound by craving for the world and occupied with livelihoods they cannot relinquish for an instant. The bodhisattva relinquishes them and enters dhyāna single-mindedly; this is giving. Without keeping discipline, concentration cannot arise; when dhyāna is entered, mixed thoughts do not arise and evil is naturally absent; this is discipline. Restraining body and speech, resisting fatigue while enduring pain, controlling external objects so the mind does not attach, and subduing inner afflictions so they do not arise is forbearance.

Maintaining right mindfulness through the first, middle, and last watches of the night, and keeping the mind constantly in concentration while walking, standing, sitting, and lying down without mixed thoughts, is diligence. Being single-minded in concentration, neither scattered nor attached to its flavor, is concentration. Being single-minded in concentration while knowing the marks of worldly dharmas’ arising and ceasing and deeply knowing what is false is prajñā. Every practice is fully present in dhyāna, and each dhyāna can produce many qualities. Because compassion bears sentient beings, it receives the name ground of forbearance.

Highest World-Transcending Dhyāna and the Judgment and Opening of Noble Practice in Concentration

Third, highest world-transcending dhyāna is the nine great dhyānas explained in the Bodhisattvabhūmi Sūtra, not all unfolded here. Self-nature dhyāna contemplates the true nature of mind and is called the highest concentration. What dharma among all dharmas is not revealed through mind? Mind encompasses all like a wish-fulfilling jewel. All nine great dhyānas are the Dharma realm; everything tends toward dhyāna, every encountered object is real, and not a single color or fragrance is other than the middle way. The two vehicles do not even know their names, much less personally realize these concentrations.

The preceding old fundamental dhyāna is like milk, refining dhyāna like curds, perfuming dhyāna like raw ghee, cultivating dhyāna like refined ghee, and the nine great dhyānas like clarified essence. Clarified essence is wondrous.

They may also be judged by the mind with which dhyāna is cultivated. Cultivating fundamental dhyāna with a mind attached to flavor produces milk. Cultivating it only for self-liberation produces curds. Cultivating it with compassion produces raw ghee. Cultivating it with sequential compassion produces refined ghee. Cultivating it with the mind of the true mark produces clarified essence. The other four flavors are judged in the same way. Whichever dhyāna one cultivates, without the mind of the true mark it is called coarse.

When the coarse is opened to reveal the wondrous, ānāpāna itself is the Great Vehicle. The true mark of the Dharma realm encompasses and supports all dharmas, and no other wondrousness exists beyond it. Thus the buddhas attain the path, turn the Dharma wheel, and enter nirvāṇa in the four dhyānas. Seeing the true mark within the four dhyānas is called the dhyāna pāramitā; how much more is this so for all other concentrations? This is the meaning of absolute wondrousness. Noble practice in concentration ends here.

Section Six · Noble Practice in Wisdom: Wisdom of the Four Kinds of Four Truths

Noble practice in wisdom is wisdom of the four kinds of four truths: arising-and-ceasing, non-arising, immeasurable, and non-constructed.

Wisdom of the Arising-and-Ceasing Four Truths

Wisdom of the arising-and-ceasing four truths continues to observe the dependent and primary recompenses seen through the nine corpse contemplations and liberations. The body swells, rots, decays, and is impure, bearing marks of oppression and manifestation and the marks of the three sufferings. This is wisdom of the truth of suffering.

Practitioners no longer become deluded about or attached to dependent and primary recompense, no longer become slaves of affection, and no longer use body and speech to commit upper, middle, or lower grades of the ten evils and thus bring about lives in the three bad destinies. They know the marks of evil karma’s production, growth, transformation, and the twenty-five modes of existence. They also know worldly cause and effect and the faults of impurity, and give rise to profound shame and revulsion.

Thus, they never kill another to preserve themselves, seize another’s property to nourish their own bodies, indulge in impure sexual conduct, use crooked means to seek a reputation for uprightness, alienate enemies from their allies, entrap others over honor and disgrace, flatter inwardly while acting clever outwardly, greedily accept without measure, indulge poison that harms their cultivation of the path, or lose the real through deviant views.

Instead of committing these impure ten evils, they feel shame and contempt for them and cultivate upper, middle, and lower grades of the ten wholesome acts, bringing about lives in the three good destinies. The causes and results of the ten wholesome acts likewise have marks of production, growth, transformation, and the twenty-five modes of existence. This is wisdom of the truth of arising.

Contemplating dependent and primary recompense as impure breaks the inversion of purity. Contemplating every feeling as the three sufferings breaks the inversion of pleasure. Contemplating every activity as existing through combination breaks the inversion of self. Contemplating every mind as arising and ceasing breaks the inversion of permanence. From the applications of mindfulness to separate marks through the general application, one skillfully cultivates the right efforts, bases of supernormal power, faculties, powers, awakening factors, and path, advancing toward the gate of nirvāṇa. Compassionate vows, the six perfections, and all practices are also present, revealing the Great Vehicle’s marks. These are also the marks of discipline, concentration, and wisdom and of the capacity to remove afflictions. They are called wisdom of the truth of the path.

When inversions do not arise, karma does not arise. When karma does not arise, causes do not arise; when causes do not arise, results do not arise. This is called the mark of quiescent cessation, the mark of the cessation of the twenty-five modes of existence, and the mark of removal. This completes wisdom of the arising-and-ceasing four truths.

Wisdom of the Non-Arising Four Truths

Wisdom of the non-arising four truths contemplates that impure form is itself empty by nature, not empty only after form has been extinguished, like an image in a mirror without real substance. Thoroughly understanding that the five appropriated aggregates are empty and have no existence, one realizes that suffering has no fixed suffering while the real truth can still be seen. This is wisdom of the truth of suffering.

Knowing that arising comes from mind, that mind is like an illusion, and that arising produced by mind is likewise illusory is wisdom of the truth of arising; every craving and view is the same as empty space. The path originally counters arising. Since what is treated is illusory, the path that treats it is also illusory; this is wisdom of the truth of the path. Only if dharmas truly arose could their cessation be spoken of. Since dharmas never arise, there is now nothing to cease. Even if a dharma surpassed nirvāṇa, it too would still be called illusory. This is wisdom of the truth of cessation.

Although bodhisattvas know sentient beings of the five aggregates to be like empty space, they still vow to liberate space-like beings. Although knowing arising to have no existence, they still cut off every deluded thought, as if fighting empty space. Although knowing the path to bear a nondual mark, they still diligently plant trees in space. Although no fixed sentient beings attain cessation, they still bring immeasurable sentient beings to cessation. Unfolding the factors of the path, six perfections, and other practices through this wisdom that takes concrete affairs as immediately real is wisdom of the non-arising four truths.

Wisdom of the Immeasurable Four Truths

Wisdom of the immeasurable four truths is as the Great Sutra teaches. If the four truths taught by the Buddha already encompassed all dharmas, the Buddha should not have said that dharmas not yet taught were as numerous as the lands in the ten directions. If they did not encompass all dharmas, there should be a fifth truth. The Buddha answers that the four truths have completely encompassed all dharmas and there is no fifth truth; suffering simply has immeasurable marks, and arising, cessation, and path each also have immeasurable marks that the Buddha never exhaustively taught in that scripture.

If everything were taken only as empty, emptiness itself would have no emptiness; how could immeasurable distinctions exist? Thus this is known to be discerning wisdom that emerges from emptiness into the provisional. This wisdom universally knows the distinctions between provisional and real in the ten Dharma realms and is called wisdom of the truth of suffering. Universally knowing the differences among the five dwelling afflictions is wisdom of the truth of arising. Universally understanding half-word, full-word, primary-practice, auxiliary-practice, and other Dharma gates is wisdom of the truth of the path. Understanding the differences among the half and full sixteen gates and various gates of cessation is wisdom of the truth of cessation.

The two vehicles take only the Dharma medicine of the four truths, treat their own illnesses of views and thought, and leave birth and death themselves; they are not yet skilled in distinguishing the illnesses and medicines of sentient beings. A bodhisattva who would become a great king of physicians must examine varied pulses, identify varied illnesses, master varied medicines, and know varied differences among illnesses. On this basis the bodhisattva arouses many kinds of compassion, practices many practices, perfections, and factors of the path, accomplishes many kinds of sentient beings, and purifies many buddha-lands. The details are as explained in the Mohe Zhiguan. This is called wisdom of the immeasurable four truths.

Wisdom of the Non-Constructed Four Truths

Wisdom of the non-constructed four truths first establishes the truths through the conditions of understanding and delusion. The Great Sutra says that a jewel was always within a person’s body, but the person thought it lost and therefore grieved and wept. Seeing only the body and wound, not the jewel or mirror, the person had sorrow and grief without joy. This is losing the path and cessation and thereby giving rise to suffering and arising.

When one understands that the substance of the wound is the jewel, one rejoices and no longer weeps. Fundamental ignorance is extinguished, and the bright lamp of awakening is lit. This is understanding the conditions of awakening, namely, path and cessation. Path and cessation are immediately suffering and arising; suffering and arising are immediately path and cessation. The four truths are thus not four mutually isolated entities.

Since four is not a fixed four, the immeasurable is not a fixed immeasurable. Since immeasurable is not fixed as immeasurable, the provisional is not fixed as provisional. Since the provisional is not fixed as provisional, emptiness is not fixed as empty. Not only is emptiness unobtainable in immediate emptiness; the provisional is also unobtainable in immediate provisional existence. The extremes of empty and provisional perish simultaneously, one directly enters the middle way, and quiescence and illumination flow together.

The meaning of the Large Prajñāpāramitā is that the knowledge of all modes is the mark of quiescent cessation. Knowing every kind, category of practice, and appearance is called the knowledge of all modes. The mark of quiescent cessation blocks and extinguishes both extremes; knowing every category and appearance lets both flow and illuminate. With no contriving mind, quiescent illumination naturally knows clearly. It is therefore called inconceivable and is wisdom of the non-constructed four truths.

The Great Sutra says that there is no suffering and no truth, yet there is the real; there are no arising, path, or cessation and no truth, yet there is the real. “The real” means the middle way, Tathāgata, empty space, and buddha-nature. Contemplating in this way gives rise to objectless compassion, which removes suffering at the extremes of emptiness and existence and gives the happiness of the middle way.

Cultivated form is neither pure nor impure, but immediately empty, provisionally existent, and the middle, falling into neither withered nor flourishing. Cessation is taught in the middle, with every factor of the path fully present. Universally relinquishing dependent and primary recompenses throughout the ten Dharma realms is giving. Path-born discipline of the middle way reaching the other shore of śīla is discipline. Abiding in the forbearance of quiescent cessation, undisturbed by either extreme, is forbearance. Not being interrupted by the two extremes is firm and powerful diligence. Entering the king samādhi and abiding in the Śūraṅgama is concentration. Prajñā of the true mark is wisdom. Functioning skillfully without deliberation is skillful means. The self with eight sovereignties is power. Indeterminate transformation-of-transformation dhyāna is vow. Attaining the three wisdoms within one mind is knowledge.

Each pāramitā fully possesses all ten pāramitās and every buddha-dharma. One practice is immeasurable practices, and immeasurable practices are one practice. This is the Tathāgata’s practice and wisdom of the non-constructed four truths.

Section Seven · The Ground of Fearlessness and the Twenty-Five Samādhis

While cultivating this wisdom, one abides on the ground of fearlessness, namely, the first ground of joy, and leaves five fears: fear for one’s livelihood, fear of bad reputation, fear of death, fear of bad destinies, and fear of the imposing power of assemblies.

The Great Sutra says that not fearing desire, anger, or delusion shows that the three poisons are absent within. Being free of the eight winds without removes fear of bad reputation. Not fearing hell shows freedom from fear of bad destinies. Not fearing śramaṇas or brahmans shows freedom from fear of the imposing power of assemblies. Seeing the middle way removes fear of the two kinds of death. Establishing the constant life of wisdom of the true mark removes fear for one’s livelihood.

Entering this ground, one fully possesses the twenty-five samādhis, breaks the twenty-five modes of existence, and reveals self-nature within them. Self-nature is real nature, and real nature is buddha-nature. One thereby opens the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing, gives rise to the real middle way, cuts off delusion of fundamental ignorance, and reveals the true and responsive bodies. Responding according to causes and conditions, one can manifest bodies of the ten Dharma realms in a hundred buddha-worlds, enter the wisdom ground of the buddhas of the three periods, and benefit both oneself and others. This is a genuine great celebration and is therefore called the ground of joy.

This ground fully possesses the four virtues of permanence, happiness, self, and purity. Breaking the afflictions of the twenty-five modes of existence is called purity. Breaking their karma is called self. Not receiving their recompense is called happiness. No longer undergoing their birth and death is called permanence. This is exactly what it means for buddha-nature to become manifest.

The Bodhisattvabhūmi Sūtra says that when knowledge of no-self is cultivated and perception of self does not arise, how could craving for self or the necessities of life remain? One therefore leaves fear for one’s livelihood. Seeking nothing from others and constantly benefiting all sentient beings, one leaves fear of bad reputation. Giving rise to no thought of either views or perceptions of self, one leaves fear of death. Knowing that after this life’s end one will certainly meet buddhas and bodhisattvas, one leaves fear of bad destinies. Contemplating that no one in the world equals oneself, much less surpasses oneself, one leaves fear of assemblies. The Ten Stages Scripture gives the same explanation.

The Treatise on the Ten Stages explains that the first fear relies on body, the second on speech, the third and fourth on body, and the fifth on mind. Livelihood depends on the various necessities the body requires; because these support life, they are called means of subsistence, and to subsist is to live. This speaks from the cause of the future result, and the bodhisattva no longer has this fear. Names and speech gain and lose through the mouth. A bodhisattva guards reputation not for gain and does not inwardly hope for the respect of others, and therefore has no fear of bad reputation. The fifth relies on mind and is readily understood. The third and fourth rely on body: not coveting good destinies or hating bad ones, one has neither craving nor aversion toward the body and therefore has no fear of bad destinies; having neither craving nor aversion toward the body, one also has no fear of death.

Guanding here appends three rounds of explanation. The first says that not fearing desire and the others shows destruction of the non-constructed truth of arising; not fearing bad destinies shows destruction of the non-constructed truth of suffering; not fearing assemblies shows establishment of the non-constructed truth of the path; and lacking fear for one’s livelihood and fear of death shows that seeing buddha-nature attains permanence and establishes the non-constructed truth of cessation.

The second round says that when the twenty-five modes of existence are broken, existence can contain the result. Since existence is broken, the truth of arising is broken; since the result is broken, the truth of suffering is broken. Attaining the twenty-five samādhis establishes the truth of the path. Seeing self-nature within the twenty-five modes of existence—and self-nature is buddha-nature—establishes the truth of cessation.

The third round says that breaking the twenty-five modes of existence leaves no afflictions, which is the virtue of purity. Breaking their results leaves no suffering, which is the virtue of permanence. Attaining the twenty-five samādhis is the virtue of happiness. Seeing self-nature within the twenty-five modes is the virtue of self. The four virtues become clearly manifest here.

From this point, Zhiyi’s lecture resumes to explain the names of the twenty-five samādhis.

The twenty-five samādhis are named according to the four siddhāntas. First, names follow current inclinations, like a person with many children giving each one a separate name so the siblings are not confused. Each of the twenty-five samādhis likewise has a name so conventional speech remains orderly; none may be grasped as a fixed entity. Second, each samādhi is named according to the skillful means of its doctrinal meaning and the reason for that meaning. Third, each is named according to its corresponding concrete affair and primary counteragent. Fourth, although truth is originally nameless, words are skillfully established in accordance with truth. Although four meanings are present, most of the twenty-five names follow counteragent and principle.

In general, each of the twenty-five samādhis has four layers: first, identify the faults of the corresponding mode of life; second, explain the qualities of the present dharma; third, combine practices to accomplish samādhi; fourth, compassionately break the corresponding mode of life. All twenty-five passages follow this pattern.

Hells, Animals, Hungry Ghosts, and Asuras

First, hell existence is broken through the stainless samādhi. Hells are the site of the most defiled recompense. The causes of that recompense are also defilements: evil karma, views and thought, dust-like ignorance, and fundamental ignorance. This first sees the faults.

To break these defilements, a bodhisattva cultivates the fundamental discipline explained above, breaking the defilement of evil karma; cultivates the liberations and other concentrations, suppressing views and thought; cultivates arising-and-ceasing and non-arising wisdom, breaking views and thought; cultivates immeasurable wisdom, breaking dust-like ignorance; and cultivates non-constructed wisdom, breaking fundamental ignorance. These are qualities of the present dharma.

When the defilements of views and thought are broken, the samādhi of the real truth is accomplished. When evil karma and dust-like ignorance are broken, the samādhi of the conventional truth is accomplished. When fundamental ignorance is broken, the king samādhi of the middle way is accomplished. This combines practices to accomplish samādhi.

When bodhisattvas break the defilements of hell for themselves, every practice contains compassionate vows that invisibly perfume the Dharma realm. If sentient beings in hell have conditions corresponding to this compassion, the bodhisattva can go there to respond without moving from Dharma-nature, through the power of the king samādhi. Like Vasu and Devadatta, the bodhisattva manifests a suitable body and teaches a suitable Dharma. Those with capacities for wholesome cultivation receive the compassion within discipline and are enabled to leave suffering and attain happiness. Those with capacities for emptiness receive the compassion within arising-and-ceasing, non-arising, and other wisdoms and attain the real truth. Those with capacities for the provisional receive the compassion within immeasurable wisdom and attain the conventional truth. Those with capacities for the middle receive the compassion within non-constructed wisdom and attain the king samādhi. The bodhisattva was already stainless and now also makes others stainless, and this is therefore called the stainless samādhi. The passages below all follow these four layers, which need not be repeated in full every time.

Second, animal existence is broken through the nonretrogression samādhi. Animals lack shame and retreat from good destinies. There is retreat caused by evil karma, retreat caused by views and thought, retreat caused by dust-like ignorance, and retreat caused by fundamental ignorance. To break every retreat, a bodhisattva cultivates discipline to break retreat through evil karma, concentration to suppress retreat through views and thought, arising-and-ceasing and non-arising wisdom to break retreat through views and thought, immeasurable wisdom to break retreat through dust-like ignorance, and non-constructed wisdom to break retreat through fundamental ignorance.

When views and thought are broken, nonretrogression in stage is attained and the samādhi of the real truth is accomplished. When evil karma and dust-like ignorance are broken, nonretrogression in practice is attained and the samādhi of the conventional truth is accomplished. When fundamental ignorance is broken, nonretrogression in thought is attained and the samādhi of the middle way is accomplished. All practices cultivated before contained compassionate vows invisibly perfuming the Dharma realm. If beings in the animal destiny have conditions corresponding to compassion, the bodhisattva goes there without moving from Dharma-nature through the king samādhi and manifests the suitable bodies of dragons, elephants, duo birds, great vultures, and the like, teaching the corresponding Dharma.

Those with capacities for wholesome cultivation receive the compassionate response of discipline and concentration and are enabled to leave suffering and attain happiness. Those with capacities for emptiness receive the compassion of arising-and-ceasing and non-arising wisdom and are led out of existence into emptiness, accomplishing the samādhi of the real truth. Those with capacities for the provisional receive the compassion of immeasurable wisdom and are led out of emptiness into the provisional, accomplishing the samādhi of the conventional truth. Those with capacities for the middle receive the compassion of non-constructed wisdom and are led away from the extremes into the middle, accomplishing the king samādhi. The bodhisattva neither regresses nor allows others to regress and is therefore said to possess the nonretrogression samādhi.

Third, hungry-ghost existence is broken through the mind-joy samādhi. Hungry ghosts constantly suffer evil karma’s intense hunger and thirst, afflictions of views and thought, dark obstruction by adventitious dust, and the root suffering of fundamental ignorance. To break these sufferings, a bodhisattva cultivates the preceding discipline to break suffering from evil karma, concentration to suppress suffering from views and thought, arising-and-ceasing and non-arising wisdom to break suffering from views and thought, immeasurable wisdom to break suffering from dust-like ignorance, and non-constructed wisdom to break suffering from fundamental ignorance.

When suffering from views and thought is broken, the unconditioned mind-joy samādhi is accomplished. When suffering from evil karma and dust-like ignorance is broken, the samādhi of the joy of broad learning and discernment is accomplished. When suffering from fundamental ignorance is broken, the samādhi of permanent happiness is accomplished. Compassion cultivated in the original practices invisibly perfumes the Dharma realm. If beings in the hungry-ghost destiny have conditions corresponding to compassion, the bodhisattva goes there without moving from Dharma-nature through the king samādhi, manifests a corresponding body, and teaches a corresponding Dharma.

Those with capacities for wholesome cultivation receive a compassionate response through discipline, and fragrant milk flows from the bodhisattva’s hand to satisfy them. Those with capacities for emptiness receive the compassion of arising-and-ceasing and non-arising wisdom and reach the shore of the unconditioned. Those with capacities for the provisional receive the compassion of immeasurable wisdom and play throughout the five destinies. Those with capacities for the middle receive the compassion of non-constructed wisdom, purify the roots of the three poisons—desire, anger, and delusion—and accomplish the buddha path without doubt. The bodhisattva attains joy and also enables others to attain joy. It is therefore called the mind-joy samādhi.

Fourth, asura existence is broken through the gladness samādhi. Asuras abound in suspicion and fear. There is suspicion and fear from evil karma, from views and thought, from dust-like ignorance, and from fundamental ignorance. To break them, a bodhisattva cultivates all practices: discipline breaks suspicion and fear from evil karma; concentration suppresses those from views and thought; arising-and-ceasing and non-arising wisdom break those from views and thought; immeasurable wisdom breaks those from dust-like ignorance; and non-constructed wisdom breaks those from fundamental ignorance.

When views and thought are broken, the samādhi of joy in the Dharma of emptiness is accomplished. When evil karma and dust-like ignorance are broken, the samādhi in which all sentient beings rejoice on seeing one is accomplished. When fundamental ignorance is broken, the king samādhi of joy is accomplished. The original practices and compassionate vows invisibly perfume the Dharma realm. If asuras have conditions corresponding to compassion, the bodhisattva goes there without moving from Dharma-nature through the king samādhi, manifests a corresponding body, and teaches a corresponding Dharma.

Those with capacities for wholesome cultivation receive the compassionate response of the disciplinary body and are freed from fear due to evil karma. Those with capacities for emptiness receive the compassion of arising-and-ceasing and non-arising wisdom and are freed from fear due to views and thought. Those with capacities for the provisional receive the compassion of immeasurable wisdom and are freed from fear due to ignorance of particulars. Those with capacities for the middle receive the compassion of non-constructed wisdom and are freed from fear due to fundamental ignorance. The bodhisattva realizes the three kinds of gladness and also frees others from the three fears. It is therefore called the gladness samādhi. The names above are primarily established according to their counteragents.

The Four Continents and the Dhyāna Realms of the Gods

Fifth, existence in eastern Pūrvavideha is broken through the sunlight samādhi. The morning sun rises in the east, so the name is skillfully established from that fact. The sun represents the light of wisdom that illuminates and breaks delusion. People in the eastern continent have darkness of evil karma, views and thought, dust-like ignorance, and fundamental ignorance. To illuminate and remove every darkness, the bodhisattva cultivates the light of discipline to break the darkness of evil karma, the streaming light of concentration to suppress the darkness of views and thought, the light of knowledge of all to break views and thought, the light of knowledge of paths to break dust-like ignorance, and the light of the knowledge of all modes to break fundamental ignorance.

When darkness of views and thought is broken, the sunlight samādhi of knowledge of all is accomplished. When darkness of dust-like ignorance is broken, the sunlight samādhi of knowledge of paths is accomplished. When darkness of fundamental ignorance is broken, the sunlight samādhi of the knowledge of all modes is accomplished. Original practices and compassionate vows invisibly perfume the Dharma realm. If beings in Pūrvavideha have conditions corresponding to compassion, the bodhisattva goes there without moving from Dharma-nature through the king samādhi, manifests a body, and teaches the Dharma. Those with capacities for wholesome cultivation receive the compassion of discipline and escape the darkness of evil karma. Those with capacities for emptiness receive the compassion of arising-and-ceasing and non-arising wisdom and escape the darkness of views and thought. Those with capacities for the provisional receive immeasurable compassion and escape the darkness of ignorance of particulars. Those with capacities for the middle receive non-constructed compassion and escape the darkness of fundamental ignorance. The bodhisattva breaks darkness for self and others and is therefore said to possess the sunlight samādhi.

Sixth, existence in western Aparagodānīya is broken through the moonlight samādhi. The moon first appears in the west at evening, and the name is likewise skillfully established from this fact. The moon also illuminates and breaks darkness. Its remaining qualities, accomplishment of concentration, and responsive transformation are understood according to the sunlight samādhi.

Seventh, existence in northern Uttarakuru is broken through the blazing-heat samādhi. The north is a dark and cold place where hard-frozen ice is difficult to melt; without fierce, blazing heat, it can never melt. People in the northern continent firmly grasp no-self and are difficult to transform; without the blaze of wisdom and a mind without mine, they can never be liberated.

The no-mine they grasp is still a deluded construction; self-nature personal self, dharma-self, and thusness-self remain. To break these selves, the bodhisattva cultivates arising-and-ceasing and non-arising wisdom to break the self-nature personal self, immeasurable wisdom to break dharma-self, and non-constructed wisdom to break thusness-self. Attaining emptiness of persons accomplishes the wisdom-blaze of the real truth. Attaining emptiness of dharmas accomplishes the wisdom-blaze of the conventional truth. Attaining emptiness of thusness accomplishes the wisdom-blaze of the middle way.

Original compassion invisibly perfumes the Dharma realm. If beings in Uttarakuru have conditions corresponding to compassion, the bodhisattva goes there without moving from Dharma-nature through the king samādhi, manifests a body, and teaches the Dharma. Those with capacities for wholesome cultivation receive the compassion of discipline and escape the deludedly constructed no-self. Those with capacities for emptiness receive the compassion of arising-and-ceasing and non-arising wisdom and escape the self-nature self. Those with capacities for the provisional receive immeasurable compassion and escape dharma-self. Those with capacities for the middle receive non-constructed compassion and escape thusness-self. The bodhisattva breaks the deluded self for self and others and is therefore said to possess the blazing-heat samādhi.

Eighth, existence in southern Jambudvīpa is broken through the illusion-like samādhi. Recompense in the southern continent is complex and uncertain in lifespan and other matters, like an illusion. Mind conjures karma, views and thought, ignorance of particulars, and fundamental ignorance.

To break every illusion, the bodhisattva conjures non-constructed discipline from the keeping of discipline and breaks the illusions of affliction and karma; conjures the liberations from concentration; conjures the uncontaminated from arising-and-ceasing and non-arising wisdom; conjures the contaminated from immeasurable wisdom; and conjures what is neither contaminated nor uncontaminated from non-constructed wisdom. When the illusion of views and thought is broken, the illusion of the real truth is accomplished. When the illusion of ignorance of particulars is broken, the illusion of the conventional truth is accomplished. When the illusion of fundamental ignorance is broken, the illusion of the middle way is accomplished. Thus the scripture says that the Tathāgata is a great illusionist.

If sentient beings in Jambudvīpa have conditions corresponding to the vows, the bodhisattva responds according to stimulus through original compassion. Breaking every illusion oneself and also accomplishing for others the corresponding function of illusory transformation is called the illusion-like samādhi. The remaining four layers are as above.

Ninth, existence among the Four Heavenly Kings is broken through the immovable samādhi. The Four Heavenly Kings guard the lands and travel through the world; they have movement as karmic recompense and movement of views and thought, dust-like ignorance, and fundamental ignorance. The bodhisattva cultivates all practices, breaks every movement, and accomplishes samādhi. Vows perfume others; when sentient beings’ conditions evoke a response, original compassion enables them to break the four movements and accomplish the three kinds of immovability—empty, provisional, and middle. It is therefore called the immovable samādhi. Details follow the preceding pattern.

Tenth, existence in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three is broken through the difficult-to-subdue samādhi. This is the highest of the earth-dwelling heavens. Its recompense is difficult to subdue, and it also has views and thought, dust-like ignorance, and fundamental ignorance that are difficult to subdue. The bodhisattva cultivates all practices, goes beyond them, breaks the various things difficult to subdue, and personally accomplishes samādhi. Vows also perfume others. When conditions are present, original compassion enables others to realize it, and it is therefore called the difficult-to-subdue samādhi. The rest is as above.

Eleventh, existence in Yāma Heaven is broken through the pleasing samādhi. This heaven dwells in space and has no combat with blades or clubs, and is therefore called pleasing. Yet this is only the pleasantness of recompense; it does not possess pleasure in immovable karma, uncontaminated wisdom, knowledge of paths, or wisdom of the middle way. To break every displeasure, the bodhisattva cultivates all practices and accomplishes the pleasing samādhis of the three truths. Vows perfume the Dharma realm; when sentient beings have conditions, original compassion brings pleasure to their minds. It is therefore called the pleasing samādhi. The rest is as above.

Twelfth, existence in Tuṣita Heaven is broken through the blue samādhi. Tripiṭaka Master Paramārtha said that this heaven’s recompense delights in blue: palaces, clothes, objects of play, and everything else are blue. To break every blue, the bodhisattva cultivates ultimate meaning. Ultimate meaning is neither blue, yellow, red, nor white, yet can manifest blue, yellow, red, and white. Ultimate meaning is neither discipline, concentration, nor wisdom, yet can fully possess discipline, concentration, and wisdom.

Discipline breaks the blue of recompense; arising-and-ceasing and non-arising wisdom break the blue of views and thought. Seeing the real while not being real, seeing the provisional while not being provisional, and seeing the middle while not being the middle follow the same pattern. When the three blue obstructions are broken, the bodhisattva personally accomplishes the three-blue samādhis of real, conventional, and middle; responsive accomplishment of others’ samādhis is understood according to the preceding examples.

Thirteenth, the yellow samādhi breaks existence in Nirmāṇarati Heaven. Fourteenth, the red samādhi breaks existence in Paranirmitavaśavartin Heaven. Fifteenth, the white samādhi breaks existence in the first dhyāna. All three take color names first from their corresponding recompenses; yellow and red can be understood from the general meaning of the blue samādhi.

In the white samādhi, the first dhyāna is called white because it has left the five desires. Because it has not yet left initial and sustained thought, black remains. There are also the blacknesses of views and thought, dust-like ignorance, and fundamental ignorance. To break every blackness, the bodhisattva cultivates all white practices, personally accomplishes the samādhis of the three truths, and accomplishes samādhi for others, as explained above.

Sixteenth, the manifold samādhi breaks existence as King Brahmā. King Brahmā rules a great-thousand world-system containing many kinds of sentient beings. This is merely the manifold of recompense and has not yet seen manifold emptiness, provisional existence, or middle. The bodhisattva breaks these manifolds, cultivates manifold practices of the three truths, personally accomplishes the manifold samādhi, and accomplishes the manifold samādhi for others, as above.

Seventeenth, existence in the second dhyāna is broken through the paired samādhi. Only the second dhyāna has the two unique factors of inner purity and joy; the other factors are shared with the other dhyānas, making the pair of recompense. It has not yet seen paired emptiness, provisional existence, or middle. Breaking, cultivation, personal accomplishment, and accomplishment for others all follow the preceding pattern.

Eighteenth, existence in the third dhyāna is broken through the thunder-sound samādhi. The pleasure of the third dhyāna is deepest, and beings sink into it like fish beneath ice or insects hibernating in winter. First there is attachment to the pleasure of recompense; there is also attachment to the pleasures of emptiness, provisional existence, and the middle. To awaken all attachment to pleasure, the bodhisattva cultivates thunder-sound practice. The rest is as above.

Nineteenth, existence in the fourth dhyāna is broken through the pouring-rain samādhi. The fourth dhyāna is like the earth, fully holding many seeds. Without rain, sprouts cannot grow. Every wholesome root is present within the fourth dhyāna, including karmic seeds and seeds of the three truths. The bodhisattva cultivates rain of every practice and personally gives rise to samādhi, then follows capacities through compassion and enables others to give rise to samādhi.

Twentieth, existence in the Heaven of Nonperception is broken through the space-like samādhi. What non-Buddhists attain is not truly empty, but they deludedly regard it as nirvāṇa. They regard recompense as nonempty and do not know that the real, conventional, and middle truths all avoid annihilative nothingness. The bodhisattva cultivates every empty and pure practice, accomplishing it for self and others.

Twenty-first, existence in the Nonreturners’ Heavens is broken through the mirror-illumination samādhi. These are uncontaminated noble heavens. Although they attain pure form, it remains only the pure form of recompense. They have not exhausted form as immediately empty, like a mirror not completely bright; do not know form as immediately provisional, like a mirror not yet reflecting images; and do not know form as immediately the middle, like not yet penetrating the perfection of the mirror’s substance. The rest is as above.

Twenty-second, existence in the sphere of space is broken through the unobstructed samādhi. This concentration leaves the cage of the form realm and is unobstructed only in recompense, not yet possessing the nonobstruction of the empty, provisional, and middle truths. The rest is as above.

Twenty-third, existence in the sphere of consciousness is broken through the permanence samādhi. This concentration regards the uninterrupted continuity of consciousness as permanent. This is only the permanence of concentrated recompense, not the unconditioned permanence of the real truth, the permanence of transformative function in the conventional truth, or permanence and happiness in the middle way. The rest is as above.

Twenty-fourth, existence in the “sphere of non-use” (不用處) is broken through the happiness samādhi. This sphere is like delusion and is therefore suffering; even the suffering of fundamental ignorance is present. The bodhisattva breaks it through the happiness of the three truths. The rest is as above.

Twenty-fifth, existence in the sphere of neither perception nor nonperception is broken through the self samādhi. The highest heaven regards its own state as the recompense of nirvāṇa, yet subtle afflictions remain and prevent sovereignty, continuing through the lack of sovereignty of fundamental ignorance. The bodhisattva cultivates to break it and attains the true self, a self conforming to convention, and the self of permanence and happiness. The rest is as above.

Why Are All Twenty-Five Called Kings of Samādhis?

All twenty-five are called samādhi because samādhi straightens and regulates the mind and makes concentration secure and correct. The real truth straightens through emptiness and the uncontaminated; emerging into the provisional straightens by corresponding with capacities; the middle way straightens by stopping the extremes of emptiness and existence. Thus each possesses the three truths and is generally called samādhi.

They are also called kings because the straightening of emptiness and provisional existence cannot yet be called king. The two vehicles’ entry into emptiness and the bodhisattva’s emergence into the provisional do not make a Dharma king; only the middle way’s straightening is king. Every samādhi possesses the middle way and is therefore called a king.

The Great Sutra calls the twenty-five samādhis kings of samādhis, showing their supreme position. It also says that when one enters such a samādhi, all samādhis enter within it, showing the breadth of their substance. Their capacity to respond to sentient beings throughout the twenty-five modes of existence shows their far-reaching function.

The ground of fearlessness fully possesses the varied powers and functions of the twenty-five samādhis. One can place Mount Sumeru inside a mustard seed without harming the trees and place the ocean inside a pore without disturbing turtles or fish. Though physically in hell, body and mind feel no pain. Transforming, appearing, and disappearing freely, reaching distant places without leaving Dharma-nature, precisely reveal the wondrous meaning. This power exists only after noble practice in wisdom is accomplished.

Someone asks: breaking the twenty-five modes of existence through samādhi is originally wording from the Nirvāṇa Sūtra. Why may it be used to explain the Lotus Sūtra?

The answer is that Fascicle Three of the Lotus Sūtra says that the Dharma king who breaks existence appears in the world and teaches the Dharma according to the desires of sentient beings. The four meanings—world, persons, counteraction, and ultimate meaning—are plainly all present. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra speaks of a bodhisattva breaking existence, while this scripture speaks of a Dharma king breaking existence, making the meaning still clearer. Noble practice in wisdom ends here.

Section Eight · Brahmā Practice: Removing Suffering and Giving Happiness through Objectless Compassion

Second is brahmā practice. Brahmā means pure. Attaining realization apart from craving and views at the extremes of emptiness and existence is called purity. Giving this pure Dharma to sentient beings and removing their suffering is objectless kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.

With the mind of great nirvāṇa, a bodhisattva cultivates noble practice, attains the ground of fearlessness, and fully possesses the unrestricted great functions of the twenty-five samādhis. Only this compassion is true brahmā practice. It is not the four immeasurable minds cultivated by Brahmā gods of the form realm, nor the compassion based on sentient beings and dharmas cultivated in the Tripiṭaka and Shared Teachings. When all practices are perfumed by this kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, no practice remains unaccomplished.

The Great Sutra says that if someone asks what is the root of all wholesome dharmas, one should answer that kindness is the root. Because kindness is the root of every practice, it is called brahmā practice. In the language of the Perfect Teaching, the Great Sutra further says that kindness is the Tathāgata and kindness is buddha-nature. Kindness that does not possess the Buddha’s ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and thirty-two marks is only a śrāvaka’s kindness. Kindness possessing them all is the Tathāgata’s kindness. Such kindness is the great collection of dharmas and great nirvāṇa. Its power is vast and profound and possesses every adornment of merit; it is therefore called brahmā practice.

Section Nine · Heavenly Practice: Ultimate Principle Becoming Realized Practice

Third is heavenly practice. Ultimate meaning is called heaven because it is natural principle. Before cultivation, heaven is principle. During cultivation, practice is formed from principle. After cultivation, practice reveals principle. Here, practice formed from principle during cultivation is taken and called heavenly practice.

Although a bodhisattva has entered the first ground, the bodhisattva should not remain there, because attainment is still present. The bodhisattva continues to cultivate the wisdom of the ten grounds above; ten levels give rise to the wisdom of real cultivation. Practice formed from principle is called heavenly practice. Heavenly practice is the adornment of wisdom. Noble and heavenly practices seek the buddha path above; brahmā, illness, and infant practices transform sentient beings below.

Section Ten · Infant and Illness Practices: Kindness Shares the Good, Compassion Shares Illness

Fourth is infant practice. As a bodhisattva’s merit and wisdom gradually grow, the true mark becomes increasingly manifest. Even without deliberately contriving benefit for sentient beings, two kinds of benefit—hidden and manifest—arise naturally. The power of heavenly practice brings hidden benefit; the power of brahmā practice brings manifest benefit. Although sentient beings may already have capacities consisting of slight wholesome roots, without a bodhisattva’s development those roots still cannot grow.

The power of wholesome roots of kindness is like a magnet attracting iron. A bodhisattva softens radiance, shares the dust, and performs beneficial practices, allowing sentient beings to see the bodhisattva beginning with them as a beginner. The bodhisattva first manifests as cultivating the five precepts and ten wholesome acts in common, attaining human and heavenly recompense, and performing a small good like a willow leaf. The bodhisattva then manifests as cultivating the two hundred and fifty precepts, contemplating, refining, perfuming, and cultivating, the four truths, twelve links of conditioned arising, and thirty-seven factors in common with the infant practice of the two vehicles. The bodhisattva manifests as cultivating the six perfections over three incalculable eons, cultivating the marks for a hundred eons, and gently subduing afflictions in common with the small goods of a Tripiṭaka Teaching bodhisattva cultivating the six perfections. The bodhisattva manifests form as immediately empty and as neither arising nor ceasing, in common with the Shared Teaching’s small goods; and separately successive stages and a resemblance of the middle way, in common with the Distinct Teaching’s small goods.

All this is the power of the mind of kindness. The bodhisattva stoops to become the same as each kind of beginner and supports and guides them to accomplishment. Giving happiness through kindness gives rise to infant practice.

The Great Sutra says that an infant can pronounce the great syllables, namely ba and he. This means seeking buddhahood while sharing the small practices of the six perfections; they are therefore called great syllables. It further says that an infant does not see such marks as day and night or close and distant relations. This shares the Shared Teaching bodhisattva’s meaning of form as immediately empty. It also says that an infant cannot perform great or small affairs: great affairs are the five heinous deeds, while small affairs are the mind of the two vehicles. This shares the Distinct Teaching. The Distinct Teaching does not abide in birth and death and therefore has no five heinous deeds; it does not abide in nirvāṇa and therefore has no Lesser Vehicle mind.

The scripture also says that parents use a yellow willow leaf to quiet an infant. This shares the infant practice of the five precepts and ten wholesome acts among humans and gods. It says that what is not the path is taught as the path because it can produce a slight condition for the path. This shares the infant practice of the two vehicles. The power of wholesome roots of kindness can emerge into the provisional to transform sentient beings, manifest the same varied skillful means of small goods, and then lead them into Buddha-wisdom, becoming the Perfect Teaching’s infant practice. The scripture further says that an infant cannot rise or remain, come or go, or speak. The rest is as taught in the scripture. Judging the coarse and wondrous and opening the coarse to reveal the wondrous in infant practice are also understood according to the preceding pattern.

Fifth is illness practice, arising from objectless great compassion. As soon as sentient beings begin to produce a small good, the bodhisattva has a corresponding illness practice. Sharing sentient beings’ production of the good is here called infant practice; sharing their afflictions is called illness practice. Because sentient beings are ill, great compassion perfumes the mind, and the bodhisattva therefore says, “I too am ill.”

Sometimes a bodhisattva plays in hell, takes the form of an animal, or transforms into a hungry ghost. These share the illness of sentient beings’ evil karma, as Devadatta and others manifest. The bodhisattva also manifests parents, spouse, and children; undergoes the iron lance and horse fodder; asks for clothing when a cold wind blows; and asks for milk during a fever. These manifest the illnesses of affliction, karma, birth, aging, illness, and death that occur among humans and gods.

The bodhisattva further manifests using thirty-four moments of mind to sever the bonds at the place of awakening, sharing the illness of views and thought of the two vehicles, drawing near through skillful means, and urging diligent work. Bodhisattvas of the Tripiṭaka and Shared Teachings do the same. The bodhisattva also shares the Distinct Teaching’s place of quiescent cessation and its initial severing of dust-like and fundamental ignorance. The bodhisattva therefore universally shares the various illnesses of sentient beings, pervades the Dharma realm, and benefits them. The sequential five practices end here.

Section Eleven · How the Grounds Realized by the Sequential Five Practices Interpenetrate

Someone asks: noble practice realizes three grounds and brahmā practice two. Why are separate realized grounds not taught for heavenly, illness, and infant practices?

The answer is that noble and brahmā practices are cultivated causes, and so the grounds they realize must be stated. Heavenly practice is itself precisely what is realized. Illness and infant practices arise from the fruit as responsive transformation, and so no separate grounds of realization are taught.

Another explanation is that when the scripture reveals the meaning of the Distinct Teaching, each practice separately enters realization before the grounds. When it reveals the Perfect Teaching, entry into the grounds is one shared realization. It is not that the perfect is entirely uncultivated before the grounds or that distinction is entirely absent after entering a ground. The two sides illuminate one another and make understanding easier, so no fuller explanation is given.

When distinction is revealed before the grounds, practice in discipline realizes the ground of immovability as it advances from shallow to deep; practice in concentration realizes the ground of forbearance; and practice in wisdom realizes the ground of fearlessness. After entry into a ground, the three grounds do not remain permanently separate. At entry, one is unmoved by either extreme and is called the ground of immovability. Receiving the Buddha-Dharma above and bearing sentient beings below is called the ground of forbearance. Being sovereign in both birth and death and nirvāṇa is called the ground of fearlessness.

The ground of fearlessness is named from the virtue of self, the ground of forbearance from happiness, and the ground of immovability from permanence; the virtue of purity extends through all three. On the day of entry into a ground, the four virtues of permanence, happiness, self, and purity are accomplished simultaneously without increase or decrease. Their division into three grounds is only required by the method of teaching, like the story of three in the morning and four at night: the numbers differ in speech, but what is gained does not.

After entry, every ground has self-practice and self-realization. Self-practice is cultivation of heavenly practice; self-realization is realization of heavenly practice. No separate ground is therefore taught for heavenly practice. Transforming others before the grounds is called brahmā practice. Kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy are its concrete practices of transforming others, and their realization is the ground of the only child. Equanimity is its principial practice of transformation, and its realization is the ground of equality with emptiness. These two grounds are not completely separate either: compassion upon entry is called the only child, and compassion’s identity with substance is called equality with emptiness.

Every ground compassionately shares evil, which is called illness practice, and every ground kindly shares the good, which is called infant practice. The path realized is the same, so no separate grounds are taught. The qualities of buddhahood can only be reverently trusted; how could an unclear mind forcibly impose fixed distinctions upon them? This briefly answers the question.

Fahua Xuanyi, Fascicle Four, Part One ends here.

Fahua Xuanyi, Fascicle Four, Part Two, attributed as spoken by the Great Master Zhiyi of Tiantai.

Section Twelve · The Perfect Five Practices: Five Practices Complete in One Mind

The perfect five practices are as the Great Sutra teaches: there is one further practice that is the Tathāgata’s practice, namely, the Great Vehicle, great parinirvāṇa. The Great Vehicle is the perfect cause and nirvāṇa the perfect fruit. This one practice marks the Tathāgata’s practice, not the other six perfections or practices of the Shared and Distinct Teachings.

Although preceding practices were also called the Great Vehicle, they could not perfectly carry all. Although preceding attainments were also called nirvāṇa, something could still be said after passing the graph 茶 (cha); they were only bodhisattva practices and could not be called the Tathāgata’s one practice.

True perfect practice perfectly possesses the ten Dharma realms; one vehicle is every vehicle, and only then is it called the Great Vehicle. This is riding the Buddha Vehicle and is therefore called the Tathāgata’s practice. The meaning of the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom is that from the first arousal of resolve a bodhisattva constantly contemplates nirvāṇa while practicing the path. The meaning of the Large Prajñāpāramitā is that from the first arousal of resolve a bodhisattva practices, produces, and cultivates, and even when seated at the place of awakening still practices, produces, and cultivates. The ultimate and initial resolves do not differ. All these reveal the meaning of the Tathāgata’s practice.

The Lotus Sūtra teaches the Practices of Ease. Ease is nirvāṇa, the perfect fruit; practice is the perfect cause and shares nirvāṇa’s meaning, and it is therefore called the Tathāgata’s practice. Entering the Tathāgata’s room, putting on the Tathāgata’s robe, and sitting on the Tathāgata’s seat all speak of the Tathāgata in terms of a person, while nirvāṇa speaks in terms of a dharma. When the Dharma is explained in terms of the person, the Tathāgata is nirvāṇa. When the person is explained in terms of the Dharma, nirvāṇa is the Tathāgata. The two scriptures share the same meaning.

The Nirvāṇa Sūtra names the one Tathāgata practice but broadly explains the sequential five practices. The Lotus Sūtra marks the Practices of Ease and broadly explains perfect interfusion. Here the Lotus Sūtra is used to explain the perfect five practices.

When the five practices are complete without lack in one mind, they are called the Tathāgata’s practice. What the scripture calls adorning oneself with the Tathāgata’s adornment is perfect noble practice. The Tathāgata’s room is perfect brahmā practice. The Tathāgata’s seat is perfect heavenly practice. The Tathāgata’s robe has the two aspects of gentleness and forbearance: gentleness is perfect infant practice and forbearance perfect illness practice.

These five practices are the one practice of the true mark. One practice does not produce five other practices, and the five do not produce another one. They neither merge into a mass nor separate from one another. They are inconceivable and are therefore called the one-five practice.

How Adornment, Room, Seat, and Robe Become the Five Practices

Why is adornment called noble practice? The scripture says to keep the Buddha’s pure discipline; the Buddha’s discipline is perfect discipline. It also says to penetrate deeply the marks of offense and merit and illuminate the ten directions everywhere. Only seeing the true mark in offense as itself merit is called deep penetration. Leaving the ten disturbances through the mind of the true mark is all perfect discipline.

The scripture further says that the Buddha himself abides in the Great Vehicle and, in accord with the Dharma he has attained, is adorned by the power of concentration and wisdom. These are the Buddha’s adornments of concentration and wisdom and are therefore called the Buddha’s noble practice.

Why is the Tathāgata’s room called brahmā practice? Objectless compassion can serve as the support of the whole Dharma realm, like a magnet universally attracting iron, so that no sentient being fails to turn toward it. It further guides them through universal vows, supernormal powers, and wisdom and causes them to abide in this Dharma. The Tathāgata’s room is therefore brahmā practice.

Why is the Tathāgata’s seat called heavenly practice? Ultimate-meaning heaven is the wondrous principle of the true mark, the teacher of the buddhas and the shared dwelling of all tathāgatas. The scripture says to contemplate all dharmas as empty, neither moved nor regressing, and not to discriminate upper, middle, or lower dharmas, conditioned or unconditioned, real or unreal. The Tathāgata’s seat is therefore heavenly practice.

Why is the Tathāgata’s robe infant and illness practice? Forbearance simultaneously blocks the extremes of agitation and quiescence, while gentleness simultaneously illuminates the real and conventional truths. The scripture speaks of becoming lowly and enduring this matter, and of removing one’s jeweled necklace and putting on a worn and filthy garment; this shares illness practice. It also speaks of drawing near through skillful means; this shares infant practice.

It may also be contemplated in this way. Contemplating all ten Dharma realms as quiescent cessation is the Tathāgata’s seat and heavenly practice. Arousing compassion to remove suffering in nine Dharma realms and kindness to give happiness in one is brahmā practice. Illuminating the nature and marks of good through gentleness is infant practice; illuminating the nature and marks of evil is illness practice. Illuminating the nature and marks of good is also discipline, while being quiescent yet constantly illuminating is concentration and wisdom, namely, noble practice. Thus one mind illuminating the ten Dharma realms fully possesses the perfect five practices.

Five Practices in One Mind and Samādhis of the Three Truths

The five practices in one mind are also the samādhis of the three truths. Noble practice is the samādhi of the real truth. Brahmā, infant, and illness practices are the samādhi of the conventional truth. Heavenly practice is the king samādhi of the middle way.

The perfectly interfused three samādhis can also perfectly break the twenty-five modes of existence. Because they are immediately empty, they break evil karma, views, and thought in the twenty-five modes. Because they are immediately provisionally existent, they break ignorance of particulars. Because they are immediately the middle, they break fundamental ignorance. They are immediately one and three and three and one. One emptiness is all emptiness, one provisional existence all provisional existence, and one middle all middle. They are therefore called the Tathāgata’s practice.

Further, the Tathāgata’s room invisibly perfumes the Dharma realm. The power of wholesome roots of kindness does not move from the limit of reality yet softens radiance and shares the dust. Responding through the compassion of illness practice, it manifests various bodies, appearing deaf or mute, and teaches various dharmas, appearing mad or foolish. When sentient beings have capacities to produce wholesome roots, it responds through the compassion of infant practice and manifests the skillful means of ba and he, wooden oxen, and willow leaves.

When there is a capacity for entering emptiness, it compassionately responds through noble practice, manifesting one who carries a vessel of excrement and bears a fearful appearance. When there is a capacity for entering the provisional, it compassionately responds through brahmā practice. The power of wholesome roots of kindness sees corresponding events, from sitting on a lion throne with feet supported by a jeweled table to manifesting as a merchant traveling throughout other lands, coming and going in pursuit of benefit. There is nowhere it is absent.

When there is a capacity for entering the middle, it compassionately responds through heavenly practice, like a swift horse that sees the shadow of a whip and runs on a broad, straight road without stagnation or obstruction. Perfect response therefore has no fixed before or after, is neither simultaneous nor mutually separate, and teaches the nondiscriminating Dharma—that all dharmas from the beginning have always themselves borne the mark of quiescent cessation. It is also like the asura’s lute, which no fixed person plays yet which sounds in response to stimulus.

Gradual entry into the Perfect Teaching is as explained before; sudden entry is as explained here. After entry into the perfect, realization is equal and no longer differs. The power of wholesome roots of kindness lets those entering gradually or suddenly see corresponding teachings only to reveal the difference between the initial entrances of the Distinct and Perfect Teachings.

Illuminating the Perfect Five Practices Again through the Preceding Gates of Objects and Wisdom

The perfect five practices are also practices guided by wisdom of the four kinds of twelvefold conditioned arising. Purity of inconceivable consciousness, name-and-form, and the others is noble practice in discipline. Purity of formations, existence, and the others is noble practice in concentration. Purity of fundamental ignorance, craving, and the others is noble practice in wisdom. The quiescent cessation of the twelve links together with absence of the preceding three kinds of conditioned arising is heavenly practice. The capacity to share the cessation of the preceding three is infant practice, and the capacity to share their arising is illness practice.

The perfect five practices are also practices guided by wisdom of the four kinds of four truths. The path of the non-constructed is noble practice in discipline, concentration, and wisdom. Cessation of the non-constructed is heavenly practice. Removing suffering through compassion—removing four kinds of suffering and giving four kinds of happiness—is brahmā practice. Explained only through compassion, it is illness practice; explained only through kindness, infant practice.

The perfect five practices are also practices guided by wisdom of the seven kinds of two truths. Skillful means within the perfect real is noble practice, while the principle of the perfect real is heavenly practice. Compassion for seven kinds of conventional and kindness giving seven kinds of good is brahmā practice. Sharing the seven conventional is illness practice, and sharing the seven real is infant practice.

The perfect five practices are also practices guided by wisdom of the five kinds of three truths. Good within the conventional truth is noble practice in discipline. Dhyāna within the real truth is noble practice in concentration, and wisdom within the real truth is noble practice in wisdom. The truth of the middle is heavenly practice. Removing five kinds of conventional suffering and giving the happiness of five kinds of real and the middle is brahmā practice. Sharing the five conventional is illness practice; sharing the five real and the middle is infant practice.

The perfect five practices are also practices guided by wisdom of the one real truth. The one real truth has path-born discipline, concentration, and wisdom; these are noble practice. The one real object is heavenly practice. Compassion of identical substance spoken together is brahmā practice; kindness and compassion spoken separately are infant and illness practices.

Section Thirteen · Contemplating the Perfect Five Practices in Mind and the Final Question and Answer

The perfect practices explained above need not be sought far away; they are this present mind. The nature of ease is fully present in all dharmas. Contemplating the original nature of mind is called the highest concentration. Mind-nature is immediately empty, provisionally existent, and the middle. The five practices, three truths, and all buddha-dharmas are immediately fully present through mind.

Beginners who can already practice the Tathāgata’s practice in this way should be offered gifts as the Tathāgata is offered gifts. Whichever direction they travel, one should bow toward them; wherever they go, one should raise a stūpa for them, because they already possess the relic of the whole body. If this is so for the initial resolve, how much more for resembling understanding? How much more for entry into the stage of abiding?

The meaning of the Bodhisattvabhūmi Sūtra is that all dhyānas arise from self-nature dhyāna. All dhyānas are of three kinds. First is dhyāna of present-life happiness, which is empty wisdom of the true mark and the samādhi of the middle way. Second is dhyāna producing all lineage samāpattis, including the liberations, superior entries, and the like of the two vehicles; it is the samādhi of the real truth. Third is dhyāna benefiting sentient beings, which is the samādhi of the conventional truth.

Know that the five practices and three truths are fully accomplished in all dhyānas. This is the stage of partial realization at the first abode. Upon entering this stage, no dharma is not buddha-dharma. This is practice of the perfect mind; how could it share the meaning of the preceding sequential five practices? Sequential practice is coarse, while one practice possessing all practices is wondrous; this is relational wondrousness. When the coarse is opened to reveal the wondrous and no fixed coarse remains to serve as contrast, it is the absolute subtlety of practice.

Someone asks: the Lotus Sūtra has already opened the coarse and revealed the wondrous, and every coarse practice has entered the wondrous. Why does the Nirvāṇa Sūtra again teach the sequential five practices?

The answer is that the Lotus Sūtra broke attachment to provisional dharmas for people during the Buddha’s lifetime and brought them into the real. At that time no fixed coarse dharma remained, and the intent of the teaching was complete. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra, however, was taught for ordinary beings of the latter age. Their illnesses of views and thought are grave; they fixedly grasp the one real and revile skillful means. Although drinking ambrosia, they cannot immediately see the real within concrete affairs, and because they do not know how to take the medicine they injure their lives and die early. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra therefore supports discipline, concentration, and wisdom and reveals great nirvāṇa. Consequently, one who grasps the meaning of the Lotus Sūtra need not employ an additional sequence of practices in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra.

The subtlety of practice first rejoins a question often split in two: once wisdom has seen the principle, is cultivation merely an additional task that follows? The treatise answers that wisdom is like the eye and practice like the foot. With feet but no eyes, every step may go astray; with eyes but no feet, one can never personally reach what one sees. Wondrous practice does not make another road apart from wondrous wisdom. It lets what is known truly become what is practiced.

Thus, although the chapter unfolds innumerable gates of practice, its thread never departs from the mutual reliance of wisdom and practice. The count may increase from one to the inexpressible, teaching gates may be shallow or deep, and the five practices may first be sequential and later perfectly inclusive. Yet whether a practice enters the wondrous is not judged by how many names it has, but by the wisdom that guides it and whether it accords with the true mark that has been seen.

Section One · Practices Are Numerous as Dust: Why Begin with Wisdom as the Eye and Practice as the Foot?

The object is the place to be reached, wisdom is the eye that sees, and practice is the actual going there. Object, wisdom, and practice are separately spoken of as three, but they are not three unrelated things. The marks of dharmas possess the three virtues; the wisdom that understands possesses the three virtues; and practice in accord with what has been taught also possesses the three virtues. When three are spoken from one, the three do not leave the one; when one is spoken from three, the one does not diminish the three. Wondrous practice therefore does not heap up many virtuous items. Practice itself is perfectly inclusive and does not lose its wholeness when divided in explanation.

The treatise first borrows the increasing numbers of prajñā: one dharma can encompass all practices, two dharmas can also encompass all practices, and so can ten, a hundred, and thousands of myriads of millions of dharmas. This does not mean that each later item adds only one thing to the preceding one, nor does it demand that every gate of practice under heaven be listed. It shows that when right wisdom is master, every number can become an entrance that encompasses all practices.

However many the merchants, they need a guide; a long thread can sew, but it needs a sharp needle; an ox can draw a cart, but it needs a driver. All three analogies deepen the same point: the power of practice must not be slighted, but power without direction cannot arrive safely. For wisdom to guide practice is not for knowledge to replace practice, but for every step never to leave the object contemplated. Words can indicate only the general meaning. When actually unfolded, practice is as vast as space.

Section Two · Why Can All Four Teaching Gates Proceed from One Practice to Immeasurable Practices?

According to the Tripiṭaka Teaching, one practice may be vigilance or not taking what belongs to another. Guarding the one mind while passing through the six sense objects means remaining vigilant everywhere; not taking forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles, or dharmas brings what must be done to completion. Two practices are calm and insight: calm prevents evil dharmas from arising and deportment from breaking down, while insight permits suffering, its arising, its exhaustion, and the path to be known as they are. Three practices are discipline, concentration, and wisdom: doing no evil belongs to discipline, undertaking every good also encompasses concentration, and purifying one’s own mind returns to wisdom. Increase these to four, five, or hundreds of thousands of myriads of millions, and the pattern is the same.

According to the Shared Teaching, the one mark is one practice and the various marks are immeasurable practices. If the one mark is grasped as real, the various marks refute it; if the various marks are instead grasped as each having its own nature, the one mark refutes them. Fire, wood, and fuel interrogate one another: if fire burns by itself, it does not need wood; if wood burns by itself, it does not need fire; and if each has a fixed self-nature, they cannot depend on one another to produce burning. When both refuter and refuted are broken through until neither abides, one practice and immeasurable practices no longer obstruct one another.

According to the Distinct Teaching, Sudhana visits spiritual advisers in succession. Each claims to know only one Dharma gate and commends the other gates as beyond his knowledge. Leaping from a cliff and entering fire is one gate; counting grains of sand and reading bodily marks are other gates. They remain sequentially distinct, and one gate cannot immediately encompass all gates. According to the Perfect Teaching, the Dharma realm is the primary gate of one practice, while the treatise also names the ten objects and the ten contemplations that form the vehicle without expanding their names. One practice immediately encompasses all practices. From one to the immeasurable, and from the immeasurable to one, they no longer obstruct one another through sequential separation.

All four gates can speak of practice, but their depths must not therefore be flattened. First, each is directly explained according to its own gate; next the coarse and wondrous are judged; finally all earlier practices capable of entering reality are opened into wondrous practice. Opening and revealing does not judge the first three kinds of cultivation utterly useless. It prevents practitioners from grasping the skillful means suited to them as permanently separate endpoints.

Section Three · Why Must the Five Practices First Be Explained Sequentially?

The treatise next follows the Great Sutra in unfolding noble practice, brahmā practice, heavenly practice, infant practice, and illness practice. The five names seem parallel, but in fact they differ in cause and result and in upward attainment and downward transformation. Noble practice completes one’s own virtue through discipline, concentration, and wisdom; brahmā practice benefits others through kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Heavenly practice advances upward in realization as practice formed from principle, while infant practice and illness practice stoop downward from compassion to share the circumstances of sentient beings.

Noble practice begins when hearing the Dharma gives rise to faith. The practitioner believes that the Buddha possesses the unsurpassed path, the great right Dharma, and the great assembly’s right practice. One then becomes weary of the confinement of home life and aspires to the openness of renunciation. Faith gives rise to vows, and vows establish practice. This sequence is not imposed from outside: without faith, vows have no root; with vows but without discipline, concentration, and wisdom, what is vowed cannot become an actual road.

Judging and opening appear in the relevant passages but are not mechanically repeated for all five practices. Wisdom within noble practice explains only the four kinds of four truths and does not again judge and open; brahmā practice and heavenly practice likewise receive no separate judging and opening. If readers see only five names, they will mistake the long chapter for a catalogue of practices. Only by distinguishing the actual layers within each passage can they see that the treatise always asks how the same practice enters reality through skillful means and, once opened and revealed, is no longer excluded from the wondrous.

Section Four · Why Does Discipline Extend from Guarding a Single Flotation Bladder to the First Ground of Immovability?

Noble practice in discipline first unfolds through five branches. The discipline of purity in fundamental actions takes the ten wholesome acts of natural discipline as the root of all discipline. The discipline of residual purity in the preceding and following retinues includes sthūlātyaya and the like as preceding retinues, the thirteen and the like as following retinues, and residual precepts established in other scriptures. The discipline of purity in awareness that is not awareness of evil does not admit thoughts of desire, anger, harm, and the like. The discipline of purity in mindfulness that guards right mindfulness encompasses the four applications of mindfulness. The discipline that dedicates all toward the unsurpassed path keeps every practice of discipline from stagnating in a lesser fruit. The flotation bladder is only the general analogy for noble practice in discipline, and right mindfulness belongs only to the fourth branch. The first two branches expressly encompass discipline, the third already corresponds to concentration, and the last two turn toward wisdom and the great vows. The five are therefore not five prohibitions of one kind.

The vows of self-restraint carry discipline to an extreme: one would rather endure blazing fire, a mountain of knives, and hot iron than break discipline for life, limb, or sensual pleasure. The vows to protect others do not merely seek personal blamelessness. They vow that sentient beings will attain pure, unbroken, unanalyzed, nonretrogressive discipline, all the way through the discipline complete in the pāramitās. Discipline thereby ceases to be only the prevention of personal faults and becomes the direction in which self and others together reach the unsurpassed path.

After the ten precepts, the treatise immediately concludes by entering the first ground of immovability: if they are well guarded, one is immovable, nonretrogressive, not fallen, and undispersed. “Immovable” here does not mean rigid closure. Body, speech, and mind have gained a firm foundation, and one therefore does not lose right mindfulness amid varied objects.

Yet if the marks of discipline are grasped as fixed, real dharmas, discipline still cannot be called wondrous. One contemplates that offense and merit both arise from mind; seeing mind as originally empty, one sees that offense and merit do not abide on their own. The good understanding of one who upholds the vinaya is precisely not to generate attachment to dharmas at the point of strictest discipline. Thus the discipline of śrāvakas and of bodhisattvas can both be opened into the Buddha’s discipline, and what was kept throughout the long night reveals only today the fruit toward which it had always been directed.

Section Five · If Meditative Concentration Is Quiescent, Why Must Its Practices Still Be Distinguished Layer by Layer?

Noble practice in concentration begins with worldly dhyāna and first cultivates the four fundamental dhyānas. A practitioner becomes weary of the pressures of the desire realm like one oppressed by great heat entering a cool pool. Separation from desire attains the first dhyāna; the cessation of initial and sustained thought enters the second; leaving joy enters the third; and relinquishing pain and pleasure, with mindfulness purified, enters the fourth. The four immeasurables universally take sentient beings as objects through kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. The four formless attainments then transcend perceptions of form and deepen into infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothing whatsoever, and neither perception nor nonperception.

These concentrations can make the mind pliant and stable, yet they may still only suppress delusion without severing it. Contemplative dhyāna is therefore taught next. The nine corpse contemplations directly contemplate a corpse’s lividity, swelling, decay, and other marks to counter attachment to the body. The eight liberations, eight superior bases, and ten universal bases gradually make contemplative power sovereign. Though the nine contemplations are only an initial gate of impurity contemplation, they are like a floating corpse at sea upon which one may still rely to cross. Sensual attachment is only the illness they treat.

Refining dhyāna is the nine sequential concentrations, using the uncontaminated to refine the contaminated. Perfuming dhyāna is the lion’s-sport samādhi, entering and emerging in uninterrupted sequence. Cultivating dhyāna is transcending samādhi, making near and distant leaps in entering, emerging, and abiding. Like a painter who blends five colors and, through successive shades, brings forth immeasurable forms and hues, the many gates of concentration must not be treated as a scattered list of names. Contemplating, refining, perfuming, and cultivating form a course from subduing the mind and breaking attachment to sovereignty and great function.

A bodhisattva abides in dhyāna and attains the ground of forbearance: one not only subdues one’s own afflictions but can also give rise to all practices within concentration. Worldly dhyāna is guided by lower wisdom; contemplation, refining, perfuming, and cultivating progressively correspond to world-transcending wisdom. At a deeper level, the nine great dhyānas take self-nature dhyāna as their root and unfold all dhyāna, difficult dhyāna, all-gate dhyāna, and the others. Dhyāna does not cease to be practice because it is still. Precisely because the mind is undistracted, all practices can operate in accord with wisdom.

Section Six · If the Four Truths Are Complete, Why Must Wisdom Practice Still Open into the Immeasurable?

Noble practice in wisdom first contemplates the four truths. Suffering is oppressive, arising brings about results, cessation is quiescent, and the path leads through. The practitioner thereby knows the illness, its cause, that it can be cured, and the road to follow. If the four truths remain only four names, wisdom has not yet arisen. What is heard must pass from hearing to reflection and from reflection to cultivation, so that it does not remain in words and phrases alone. Only then does it become the wisdom within noble practice.

Yet sentient beings differ in capacities and views, and the same suffering, arising, cessation, and path have the depths of arising-and-ceasing, non-arising, immeasurable, and non-constructed. The arising-and-ceasing contemplation sees the flux of cause and effect and becomes disenchanted. The non-arising contemplation sees that the four truths in themselves lack self-nature. The immeasurable contemplation sees inexhaustible distinctions among causes and effects within and beyond the realms. The non-constructed contemplation does not seek another set of contrived practices outside the true mark: in delusion, it is like possessing a jewel within one’s body but seeing only the wound; on awakening, the jewel is not obtained from outside.

Thus, although the four truths fully encompass dharmas, encompassing them fully does not permit only one way of speaking. Different illnesses require different gates of treatment. Though the gates differ, what they return to never leaves reality. Wisdom practice develops through hearing, reflecting, and cultivating, from contemplating one truth to contemplating four, and from the four truths separately to one truth’s perfect illumination. When wisdom can illuminate, principle is revealed; when principle is exhausted, illuminator and illuminated no longer remain two separate things.

Non-constructed wisdom is most easily misunderstood as doing nothing. The treatise says that there is no suffering and no truth, yet there is the real; there are no arising, path, or cessation and no truth, yet there is the real. This breaks fixed grasping at the names and marks of the four truths; it does not deny cause and effect or cultivation. If “non-constructed” is used to abandon discipline, concentration, and wisdom, a phrase still conceals practice. True non-construction is to practice all practices without seeing a separate substance of practice to grasp.

Section Seven · Why Does Freedom from the Five Fears Unfold into Twenty-Five Samādhis?

When wisdom practice is accomplished, one enters the ground of fearlessness. Desire, anger, and delusion no longer press from within, while bad reputation and the imposing power of assemblies cannot disturb one from without. Fear for one’s livelihood, fear of death, and fear of bad destinies also lose their roots when the true mark is seen. Here the recorder adds three rounds of explanation. The first correlates the five fears with the non-constructed four truths: desire and the others show that arising has been destroyed, bad destinies that suffering has been destroyed, imposing assemblies that the path has been established, and the fears for life and of death that cessation has been established. The second explains the destruction of the causes and results of the twenty-five modes of existence and the establishment of path and cessation. The third explains the accomplishment of the four virtues. This passage is the recorder’s appended elaboration following the lecture. With the transition into the twenty-five samādhis, the text returns to Zhiyi’s own explanation.

The twenty-five samādhis are not twenty-five mutually sealed names for concentration. In each of the twenty-five modes of existence, a bodhisattva breaks delusion, accomplishes a dharma, and compassionately responds to transform beings. The heavy suffering of hell is broken through the stainless samādhi. Animals’ lack of shame and retreat from the wholesome are broken through the nonretrogression samādhi. The hunger and thirst of hungry ghosts are broken through the mind-joy samādhi, and asuras’ suspicion and fear through the gladness samādhi. The four continents and the heavens, all the way through neither perception nor nonperception, also have their corresponding attachments and samādhis.

Each contains four layers: first breaking the existence of its retribution, then views and thought, then dust-like ignorance, and finally fundamental ignorance. What has been broken then accomplishes the dharmas of emptiness, provisional existence, and the middle. Through inherent compassion corresponding with the conditions of sentient beings, the bodhisattva goes forth, manifests a body, and teaches the Dharma. Self-liberation is not the endpoint. Only when one has oneself broken existence and then enables others to break existence is the sovereignty of the king of samādhis revealed.

Mount Sumeru enters a mustard seed without harming the trees, and the ocean enters a pore without troubling turtles or fish: these reveal the nonobstruction of large and small within Dharma-nature. The twenty-five samādhis encompass all concentrations but do not swallow their distinctions into one great concentration. They are like a king who leads the ministers, while each concentration continues to function for its corresponding capacity. The Dharma king who breaks existence appears in the world precisely because he can teach the Dharma in accord with the desires of sentient beings.

Section Eight · How Can Seeking the Path Above and Sharing the Dust Below Both Abide in the Five Practices?

Brahmā practice is rooted in kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Kindness gives happiness; compassion removes suffering; sympathetic joy sees sentient beings leave suffering and gain happiness without envy; equanimity makes the first three minds impartial and unattached. If asked what is the root of all wholesome dharmas, kindness is that root. Because kindness accords with the Tathāgata and buddha-nature, brahmā practice is not worldly goodwill but the universal benefit of all through objectless compassion.

Heavenly practice is not another heaven to which one can go; it takes ultimate meaning as heaven. Before cultivation, principle is what one relies upon. During cultivation, principle forms practice. After cultivation, practice reveals principle. A bodhisattva does not abide in the attainment of the first ground but continues upward with the tenfold cultivation of reality. Noble practice and heavenly practice seek buddhahood above, while brahmā, infant, and illness practices mature sentient beings below. The five practices thus possess both self-accomplishment and the transformation of others.

Infant practice takes the image of an infant’s gentleness and nondiscrimination together with its need to be guided. Through wholesome roots of kindness, a bodhisattva stoops to share small goods: cultivating the five precepts and ten wholesome acts together with humans and gods, the corresponding factors of the path with the two vehicles, and the practices of the various kinds of bodhisattva. A yellow willow leaf is not real gold, yet parents can use it to stop an infant’s crying. Skillful means is not ultimate, but it can give rise to a slight condition for entering the path and therefore cannot be discarded wholesale because it is not ultimate.

Illness practice arises from great compassion. Sentient beings suffer the illnesses of affliction, karma, and birth and death, and a bodhisattva therefore manifests as sharing their illnesses: playing in hell, taking the forms of animals or hungry ghosts, or manifesting parents and spouse and undergoing cold, heat, and disease. This does not mean that the bodhisattva is actually bound by afflictions. Because sentient beings are ill, great compassion perfumes the mind, and the bodhisattva can share their circumstances without losing realization. Infant practice shares the good of sentient beings; illness practice shares their evil. Compassion thereby does not remain far away.

Section Nine · If the Sequential Five Practices Have Already Been Taught, Why Teach the Buddha’s Five Practices?

The sequential five practices each have a course: from discipline one enters concentration, concentration gives rise to wisdom, wisdom accomplishes fearlessness, and compassion then transforms those below. At the stage of buddhahood, the five practices no longer await one another in sequence. Each of a buddha’s noble, brahmā, heavenly, infant, and illness practices is inconceivable. “Inconceivable” does not abandon the earlier five practices; at the fruit, the five mutually include one another and function simultaneously.

No one plays the asura’s lute, yet it produces sounds in accord with intentions. A buddha’s practice is the same. Without freshly contriving an order, it manifests the corresponding practice according to the capacities of sentient beings. Seen only from appearances, there still seem to be distinctions among keeping discipline, entering concentration, teaching the Dharma, and sharing illness. Seen from the Buddha’s mind, these practices all flow naturally from Dharma-nature, and none obstructs another.

This also answers why heavenly, infant, and illness practices are not each assigned a separate ground of realization. Noble and brahmā practices are spoken from cultivated causes, and so their realizations are marked. Heavenly practice is itself the practice of what has been realized, while infant and illness practices arise as responsive transformation following the fruit; they therefore require no separate ground. When distinguished, their causal and resultant sequence is clear; when perfectly included, one realization possesses all practices.

Section Ten · If the Tathāgata Has Only One Practice, How Can It Possess All the Practices Above?

The sutra further says that there is one practice that is the Tathāgata’s practice: the Great Vehicle, great parinirvāṇa. If this is understood as a sixth practice outside the five, separation is created anew. Instead, the treatise says that from the first arousal of resolve a bodhisattva constantly contemplates nirvāṇa while practicing the path. Although the initial and ultimate resolves differ in obscurity and clarity, the true mark they take as object is not of two kinds. Practice on the causal ground already tends toward the Tathāgata’s practice, and what is accomplished in the fruit does not leave what was contemplated at the beginning.

The Tathāgata’s room is great kindness and compassion, the Tathāgata’s robe is gentleness and forbearance, and the Tathāgata’s seat is the emptiness of all dharmas. The room receives sentient beings, the robe patiently endures all troubles, and the seat keeps every practice from bondage to the marks of dharmas. These three in turn adorn one another with discipline, concentration, wisdom, compassion, and all practices. For the Tathāgata’s adornment to adorn oneself is not to borrow an external ornament, but to bring one’s own practice into accord with what the Buddha practices.

For one practice to possess all practices also does not mean cramming every item into the same instant. When keeping one precept now, if it is guided by the wisdom of the true mark, it does not leave concentration, wisdom, or compassion. When cultivating one dhyāna, if one is not confined by personal realization, it can also encompass discipline, give rise to wisdom, and benefit sentient beings. Practices mutually include one another: the point is nonseparation, not the cancellation of each practice’s concrete appearance.

Section Eleven · Why Does Contemplation of Mind Return the Distant Buddha-Practice to the Present Thought?

If the perfect five practices are placed only at the fruit of buddhahood, beginners will forever stand outside the gate. The treatise therefore turns at the end to contemplation of mind: contemplate mind-nature as immediately empty, provisionally existent, and the middle; the five practices, three truths, and all buddha-dharmas do not leave this mind. This does not directly call an ordinary being’s deluded thought buddha-practice. It points out that cultivation can be tested only in one’s present activity of mind, not in a perfect realm sought elsewhere beyond names and marks.

If beginners can practice in this way, they already practice the Tathāgata’s practice and thus deserve reverence as one reveres the Tathāgata. A stūpa may be raised wherever they go, because the Dharma-nature of the whole body has already become manifest in their initial resolve. If this is so for the initial resolve, how much more for resembling understanding and entry into the stages? Such praise does not cancel the stages. It prevents practitioners from pushing ultimate principle far away and refusing to practice because they disparage themselves.

Self-nature dhyāna can give rise to all dhyānas. Dhyāna of present-life happiness reveals the empty wisdom of the true mark and the samādhi of the middle. Dhyānas that give rise to the various samāpattis encompass the concentrations of the real truth, while dhyāna that benefits sentient beings reveals the function of the conventional truth. The five practices and three truths are accomplished within every dhyāna; when partial realization is entered, no dharma is not buddha-dharma.

The chapter therefore asks once more at its end: if the Lotus has already opened the coarse and revealed the wondrous, why does the Nirvāṇa Sūtra still teach the sequential five practices? The answer concerns the capacities of sentient beings in different times. For people during the Buddha’s life, the Lotus broke attachment to the provisional and led them into the real; opening and revealing was sufficient. Facing ordinary beings of the latter age who grasp the real and revile the provisional, the Nirvāṇa Sūtra supports discipline, concentration, and wisdom so that mistaken consumption of ambrosia will not instead injure the life of wisdom. One who truly grasps the meaning of the Lotus can see the nonsequential within sequence and need not establish sequential practice as another ultimate.

Through the Eye of the Shiqian

Zhanran’s first move in reading this long chapter is not to add a new practice but to illuminate the layers of the main text. The opening of the subtlety of practice first marks increasing numbers in general and increasing numbers according to the teachings. Once the direct explanation begins, it can also be read as marking, listing, and explaining. “Increasing numbers” means only that the number increases; the body of dharmas is not fixed. One practice encompasses all practices, but this does not mean that at two practices only one item has been added to the preceding one. This insight guards the chapter’s general meaning and prevents readers from treating its profusion of names as a cumulatively assembled checklist.

When explaining the four teachings, Zhanran particularly marks three layers: direct explanation, judging the coarse and wondrous, and opening the coarse. Direct explanation lets each gate stand according to its own meaning; judging the coarse and wondrous distinguishes their depths; opening the coarse then brings the earlier practices into the wondrous so that they no longer remain fixed as coarse. If direct explanation is skipped, skillful means will be dismissed too hastily. If one stops at judging the coarse, provisional and real become two piles of dharmas. If one merely proclaims opening and revealing without knowing what is opened, cultivation loses its concrete content. The continuity of these three layers is precisely the rhythm by which the subtlety of practice moves from distinction into perfect interfusion.

Within the five practices, Zhanran first clarifies that the five branches of discipline are not all of one kind: the first two encompass discipline, the third concentration, and the last two wisdom. This judgment shows that noble practice in discipline already contains discipline, concentration, and wisdom, and prevents guarding mindfulness and dedication from being read as supplementary precepts. When discussing the variant ten-precept lists, he also leaves the reminder, 『誤文亦不須改』 tr. “Even an erroneous wording need not be changed.” Reading the treatise requires first preserving the text it received; one must not see a difference in present editions and immediately erase it. Only when graph-level differences are retained can doctrinal threads avoid being lost through emendation.

At the 『私謂』 tr. “I privately say” following the five fears, Zhanran expressly judges the passage to be Zhang’an’s three explanations. Only from 『今釋二十五三昧名』 tr. “Now explain the names of the twenty-five samādhis” onward does Zhiyi resume his own explanation. This layering is crucial. The three rounds of elaboration certainly belong to the transmitted treatise, but they cannot be written backward into a single voice belonging originally to the lecturer. Distinguishing Zhiyi’s teaching from Guanding’s record does not break the main text apart; it lets every speaking layer of the long chapter stand in its proper place.

The twenty-five samādhis may seem the part most likely to disappear into table-like correspondences, but Zhanran repeatedly holds to four meanings: breaking existence, accomplishing a dharma, inherent compassion, and going forth in response to conditions. Breaking delusion is not the endpoint, nor is accomplishing the three truths. Inherent compassion must also perfume the Dharma realm; when the conditions of sentient beings correspond, the bodhisattva manifests a body and teaches the Dharma so that others break their modes of existence as well. These four steps carry each samādhi from personal realization to responsive transformation, and they keep “king of samādhis” from being merely a title indicating a higher degree of concentration.

At the Perfect Teaching’s increasing numbers, Zhanran explains with particular precision how one practice possesses ten practices. One Dharma realm is not an isolated realm; each realm also possesses the ten suchnesses. What practitioners face when arousing resolve is never an abstract truth stripped of distinctions, but the whole Dharma realm complete with distinctions. Thus, to call one-practice samādhi “one practice” does not mean doing only one thing, and ten practices are not a checklist completed one after another. Every practice is guided by Dharma-realm wisdom toward the Dharma-realm object. Although the numbers are one and ten, they do not tend toward two places. This returns exactly to wisdom as the eye and practice as the foot at the chapter’s beginning: as deep as what the eye sees, so broad must be what the feet practice.

For noble practice in concentration, Zhanran also prevents contemplating, refining, perfuming, and cultivating from becoming four ornate names for dhyāna. Contemplative dhyāna breaks attachment; refining dhyāna makes entry and emergence practiced and fluent; perfuming dhyāna perfumes the contaminated with the uncontaminated; and cultivating dhyāna lets deep concentration give rise to vast qualities. From worldly fundamental concentrations to the nine great dhyānas, every level has its own function. If one admires lofty names and skips treating desire, collecting the mind, and contemplating the body, the sequence of practice is lost. If one grasps an earlier skillful means as ultimate, it cannot open into the bodhisattva’s great function. What this mirror illuminates throughout is how wisdom guides each dhyāna, not how high its title may be ranked.

Finally, as the text moves from the sequential five practices to the perfect five, Zhanran concludes that both beginning and end are sudden. What is contemplated at the initial resolve and what is revealed at the ultimate are the same one true mark; there is not first an imperfect truth that is later exchanged for a different, perfect truth. Clarity and obscurity and the stages still differ, but the principle relied upon is nondual. Thus the sequence of discipline, concentration, and wisdom is not abolished, and perfect practice is not pushed to the end of cultivation. Sequence can support the practitioner, while the perfect meaning keeps every step from leaving the ultimate. The whole chapter on the subtlety of practice stands firmly in both dimensions at once.